DBZ: Heroes of Humanity
by gotrixisgreat99
Summary: AU: The humans were always made out to be weak in DBZ, this is their chance to truly shine and alter the DBZ universe the way they should have.
1. Start of a Legend

Disclaimer: The amazing franchise that is Dragon Ball is in no way owned by me, any characters, themes and plot elements from the franchise is the property of Toei and the brilliant Akira Toriyama. In regards any future OC's or concepts I develop they are not technically my property however I respectfully request that if anyone wishes to use them they either ask permission or give me a mention in their authors notes.

Chapter 1: A Villain Emerges.

It's been five years since the climatic defeat of the evil Piccolo at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament and the world is at peace. However, the heroes of Earth have not been idle in this time of peace, each has been training relentlessly to protect the innocent should Piccolo return from his self-imposed exile and seek vengeance and also to secretly to one day surpass the Earth's greatest hero; Goku. Little did they know that the results of their training would very soon be put to the test to an extent beyond anything they could have ever imagined.

"_One day soon I'll be able to face that damn fool Goku and get revenge for my humiliation at his hands and avenge my father. I grow stronger everyday and I can sense Goku hasn't been training as much as he used to, overconfident fool," _Piccolo thought whilst meditating.

Suddenly his concentration was broken by the interruption of a rapidly approaching energy level; it didn't belong to any of those pathetic humans Goku spent time with. No, he'd fought with them multiple times to train himself, by making faked revenge attempts that they always thought they'd foiled. This was unlike any he'd felt before, its magnitude made him unconsciously flinch in trepidation. He cautiously flew towards the area it was navigating towards.

"This should be a good test of my new abilities before I face Goku." Piccolo laughed to himself, not so much out of confidence but more out of self-reassurance. After all even if he was not quite as strong as Goku yet, surely he was stronger than anyone else on Earth, visitors included?

After a short flight he came to an open field area where an impact crater of roughly eight meters in diameter was to beheld, the thing that caught his attention however was not the crater but the strange, spherical craft that had made it which lay open in the middle of the crater. Hastily searching for the ki of the individual from the craft he failed to notice the shadow that was covering him until the figure that cast it spoke.

"Well, what do we have here? I thought the people of Earth were Saiyan in appearance, obviously your some horrifically weak mutant," smirked the tall, muscular and wild haired stranger.

Whipping around to meet this menacing voice Piccolo nearly gaped in disbelief at the mystery visitor's appearance. He was like an older, more muscular version of Goku aside from the hair which instead of being palm tree-like was bushy, jutting out and in long enough to reach the back of his knees.

Quickly recovering Piccolo snarled a response with as much confidence and arrogance possible, "I am no pathetic human or mutant, I am the son of the great Demon Lord, King Piccolo, and I'd be more respectful if I were you. I'm in no mood to suffer fools, particularly one resembling Goku so much." Inwardly though he suppressed his power level ensuring he retained his element of surprise if it came to a fight.

"Look I couldn't give a crap who you're related to, Namekian , how you got here or what a 'Goku' is. All I want to know is where Kakarott resides, if you tell me I'll spare you and the majority of planet. After all I don't enjoy killing when it's unnecessary but make no mistake, I will kill you if you're un-cooperative," Raditz drawled in complete boredom and exasperation. _'This green freak is starting to bug me,'_ he inwardly thought.

Suddenly a realisation struck Piccolo; this alien was somehow Goku's brother! The resemblance was too much and the energy signature was too similar for any other possibility…

'_If he's close to Goku's power I'll need to prevent him from teaming up with Goku against me, I may have to fall back on my ultimate response, I wonder why he called me a Namekian?' _Piccolo pondered as he considered his response. "Your brother is the one known as Goku, you're very alike and Goku's origin is shrouded in mystery. I suspect then that he and you are of another species, it explains your strength and Goku's unnatural healing ability and power gains from injury," Piccolo calmly stated, all the while concentrating his Ki just close to the surface of detection in order to fight at his limits immediately.

"Well if what you say is true I have no idea why my brother is known as 'Goku', or why he hasn't killed everyone on this planet… Well it's pleasant enough, if his pod was damaged he may have decided to wait until adulthood to carve a planetary empire independent of the Planet Trade Organisation, if so I'm rather pleased with his levels intelligence, mentality and overall taste," Raditz replied whilst adjusting the head device he was wearing.

Piccolo laughed thunderously in response.

"What's funny, slug?" snapped Raditz.

"Goku is no emperor, he's an out and out hero, disgusting if you ask me but it's the truth. Oh, and his intelligence is lacking, despite his skill in regards to fighting," Piccolo replied, still chuckling.

"Ok, Mr. Green, I've had enough, bring me to him or die!" roared Raditz, enraged by the insult Piccolo was giving Kakarott and by extension their bloodline.

"Go to hell, I take orders from no-one, Goku's redneck space brother included," replied Piccolo whilst slipping into a defensive fighting stance.

Enraged, Raditz used his scouter to scan Piccolo's power level and the weak beep and subsequent readout he received back made him cry out in laughter. "Your power level is only 200! You're not even a sixth of my strength and you seriously hope to defeat me? Well if you're confident you can get a shot in for free," smirked Raditz, lowering his guard completely.

Piccolo without acknowledging the offer rushed in immediately and threw a right handed, sideways chop at the sensitive point of Raditz's neck. His blow whilst only less than half of his true power, did little more than move Raditz's head. Perturbed, Piccolo flipped away and raised his guard, wary of retaliation.

Raditz merely slowly moved his head back to its original position, grinning like a true sadist. "If that is the best you've got then I'm sorry for you," Raditz calmly stated. In an instant he'd moved from his position to appear behind Piccolo, who lunged to the right to avoid what he felt certain would be a sneak attack. Raditz however was still and laughing.

"You can't even keep up with my movements, how are going to fight me?" Raditz asked, secretly hoping Piccolo would abandon the fight, he'd had enough senseless death in his lifetime.

Piccolo's reply was simple, "I'll stop playing around." Powering up in the space of a few seconds a white aura surrounded Piccolo's tensed form. "_Shit, he can raise his power whenever he wants! This is a problem,"_ Raditz thought. "_If Kakarott can do this there's a chance he could be a match for me, if he decides to stay here and not join me." _Checking the scuter he was amazed but unworried that it now displayed Piccolo as having a power level of 472.

Rushing in Piccolo punched Raditz in the jaw and kneed him in the chest, whilst unhurt Raditz was winded and momentarily defenceless. Piccolo grinned ferally at this and continued his onslaught, punching and kicking Raditz at every angle trying to cause at least some damage.

"D_amn, all I've managed to do is bruise him occasionally, I'll need to push harder if I'm to have any ho…" _before Piccolo could finish his thought Raditz roared his frustration out and kicked Piccolo squarely in the solar plexus. He followed this up with an arm grab and threw Piccolo into the hillside.

"T_hat actually hurt!_" Raditz fumed. "_He's a third of my power but it hurt. I can't waste time on him anymore," _Raditz thought. By sheer luck his scouter detected another power level of 203, far stronger than any other reading bar Piccolo.

"It's been fun, freak, but I have a family reunion to attend!" Raditz shouted at the injured and struggling to stand Piccolo. "Don't follow me or I will have to kill you," Raditz added with a hint of sadness in his voice. He took to the skies and sped off toward Mt. Paozu.

Meanwhile at a mountain cabin area, Yamcha and Krillin were training with the ex-villains Tien and Chaoutzu, until they felt two very large power levels in the distance. They'd been tempted to go and investigate but reasoned that if it was Goku and Piccolo fighting, Goku would have sent Gohan to get back up. Now however, with one of the power levels approaching the general direction of Kame house they realised the scale of the power level and that it most certainly wasn't Goku.

"Shit, he's getting close and his ki signature is immense!" Yamcha exclaimed somewhat anxiously.

"He's strong but the four of us together could beat him," Tien coolly observed.

"He's heading to Kame House!" Chaotzu squeaked apprehensively.

"Yeah he is, how ironic is it that I was there only a few hours ago? You guys up for being Goku's cavalry again?" Krillin determinedly grinned. The reply he received was a collective nod and everyone took off to aid the man they all owed so much to.

At Kame House there was a small child of no more than four hanging off a man's shoulders giggling. He was dressed in a green and yellow traditional outfit with a hat that had a small, orange ball sewn into the top.

The man was Goku and he was laughing as he picked the child up and positioned him on his back.

"Gohan, you wanna play aeroplanes?" Goku beamed, fully enjoying his rare day off of training.

"Yes please Daddy," was the excited response from Gohan.

"Ok here we go..." Goku started before he felt something in the back of his mind "Gohan, get off me now and hide with Bulma, a huge power is heading this way," Goku said as he tensed and turned towards the power's direction. Stood up straight Goku was around 5 foot 8 inches and very muscular, particularly for his relatively young age.

"Ok Dad," was Gohan's scared reply as he made for the house only 10 metres away. Before he got halfway a ki blast gouged a trench in the sand in front of him and he stopped.

"I don't think so young one, this is a family reunion," rang out Raditz who'd fully descended in front of Goku.

"Who are you and why did you shoot at my child!?" demanded a now very wary and angry Goku.

"Wow, Kakkarot, you really have gone native… you don't even have a tail anymore. I assume it was removed after you first transformed." Raditz sighed slightly, dismayed at how un-Saiyan his brother was behaving and looking.

"My name is Goku and my tail never made me transform into anything!" snapped Goku hoping Gohan would be forgotten about by the stranger.

"Really? Well then, 'Goku', at around the age of eight to 10 did many people die on the night of a full moon? If so the beast that killed them was you transforming into an Ozaru," Raditz explained, forcing himself to call his brother by his human name, hoping that if he could connect with him he'd be able to avoid conflict.

"No… no, an ape beast killed my granddad Gohan… it couldn't be me…" Goku stammered, horrified by the revelation that he'd killed the person he considered his father. At first he didn't believe it but then it began to make sense when he thought about the destruction of Pilaf's castle by a beast while he was unconscious, still he was numb with shock and denial.

"I'm afraid so Kakarrot. Now I need you to join me and the last of our race against the evil overlord Frieza, who wiped out our home planet and our race," Raditz commanded, mentally and bitterly adding _"and our parents"_ to the list of atrocities committed by Frieza.

"Look, I was raised on Earth and I have a family. I love this planet and them and while I sympathise I won't leave, also how do you know who I am and why am I so important?" Goku replied slowly overcoming his shock.

"Well that is regrettable, understandable but regrettable. I know your human name as I had to fight a very aggressive green alien to get here and he told me, I know your birth name as I am your older brother. As for your importance, well, you have great potential as a fighter and personally after seeing everyone else I was connected to die, I wish to fight by the side of the last of my kin," Raditz admitted willingly.

"If we are truly related then you're welcome in my family providing you give up your notion of vengeance and remain here, as I still won't join you," Goku answered still a little amazed by all that was transpiring.

"I almost wish I could brother, unfortunately if I don't bring you with me we all die." Raditz regretfully sighed. "Right, the boy goes with me to my pod. You have a day to kill one hundred earthlings as proof of your commitment to our cause or I leave with him," Raditz declared issuing the pre-determined ultimatum whilst moving towards Gohan.

"I will never kill any humans and you will not take my son!" declared Goku, lunging for Raditz. With careful delivery Raditz swiftly kicked Goku in the gut before elbowing him sideways to the ground. As Goku gasped in pain, Raditz grabbed the sobbing child with regret and rose up.

"One day Kakarot, I'll be over the south mountain range," called Raditz. A few moments later a distraught and agony wracked Goku was roused by a very scared Bulma and severely pissed off Roshi.

"S'up guys? Where's Gohan?" Goku asked in a groggy daze.

"That piece of scum took him!" Bulma fumed as she took a senzu bean out.

"If I wasn't making sure Bulma was safe I'd have helped Goku, as insignificant as my aid would be," sighed a momentarily remorseful Roshi.

"Ohh, Chi-Chi will kill me," moaned a still disorientated Goku. "Where's Oolong?" Goku asked, suddenly worried for his old friend.

"In my hovercar on the way to South City hiding," replied Bulma darkly, while feeding Goku the bean.

Revitalised, Goku sprang up feeling stronger than before and with one thing in mind: getting his son back. "My brother will pay for this!" Goku growled, powering up.

Just then Piccolo and the human fighters arrived and a chorus of confused questioning and violent threats towards Piccolo occurred.

"QUIET!" bellowed Piccolo, his eyes glinting dangerously. "Explain Goku," Piccolo ordered as an angry silence settled.

"The short story is that my so called brother wants me to join him in some murderous revenge quest, I declined and he kidnapped Gohan. He's given me a day to kill a hundred people as proof of my loyalty and then he'll release Gohan, this isn't going to happen," Goku explained.

There was a murmur of confusion and then each human pledged to aid Goku. "This is what's happening, I need one of you to join me in taking Raditz on, the rest of you need to take all the non-fighters to the Lookout whilst you train with Mr Popo and Kami in the event that I fail," Goku uncharacteristically commanded the assembled warriors.

"I'll go with Goku," was the simultaneous response from the fighters.

"No," said Piccolo. "I have a score to settle with him and honestly I can't beat him without help even if it's from Goku."

"Well you're probably the strongest other than me here, although not by much judging from the energy I'm reading off the others." Goku decided. "I'll happily accept your help, Piccolo."

"Fine let's go," Piccolo grunted. With that, he soared off towards Raditz's ki signature.

"Tell Chi-Chi not to worry guys, and make sure Gohan doesn't leave Earth if I fail," Goku called as he departed, flashing that winning Son grin for what might be the last time.

"Stay alive, man," Krillin whispered as he turned to the others in preparation to leave.

Will Goku and Piccolo rescue Gohan or will the somewhat conflicted Raditz be pushed to take drastic action? Find out in the next instalment of DBZ: Heroes of Humanity!

Authors note:

This story would not be possible without the brilliant advice from my amazing editor Apollo1147. Also as this is my first uploaded story so any constructive criticism is more than welcome. The power level for Piccolo was done by taking his DBZ Raditz fight power level without weighted clothes and just adding 50. The same will be done for Goku.


	2. Tragedy and Triumph

As Goku and Piccolo were on route to Raditz's location they kept a grim silence, until curiosity got the better of Goku. "Why are helping against my brother? I thought you hated me," Goku asked puzzled by his old foe's uncharacteristic aid.

"Oh, I do hate you, more than you'll ever know. However, I hate Raditz nearly as much and he's going to deprive me of two things if he remains on Earth. One: my revenge on you if he kills you or kidnaps you and two: My chance to conquer the Earth if he returns," Piccolo sneered back.

"Well at least I don't have to worry about you redeeming yourself; I'd miss my yearly ritual of beating you and domination attempts," teased Goku.

'_If I get the chance I'll kill you and _Raditz,' Piccolo thought furiously.

Satisfied with Piccolo's answer Goku became silent again as Raditz's craft came into faint view.

"This is ridiculous! You heard Goku we're nearly as strong as him yet he expects us to stay on the lookout babysitting and training with Mr Popo and Kami, who no offense to them we've far outmatched and can't train with further," sulked Yamcha, pacing the floor of the Lookout's dining area.

"It's not ideal, Yamcha but we have to trust him," was as the calm response from Tien.

"Besides Goku's right some of us have to guard our friends," reasoned Chaiotzu.

"Yeah some of us gave to, not all of us... I'm going down there to help Goku, I don't trust Piccolo to help Goku at all," Krillin stated, already hovering a few inches in preparation for take-off.

"How come you get to go? And what do we do if you, Goku and Piccolo die?' asked Yamcha, slightly disgruntled at being side-lined.

"I get to go as Piccolo has never seen my true power and would be taken by surprise by it, giving me the best chance to take him down should he turn on Goku during or after the fight with Raditz, also you, Tien, Chaiotzu and Roshi are more than strong enough together to take of Raditz," explained Krillin.

"Fine," Yamcha moodily replied. Tien and Chaiotzu merely nodded and started training. With that Krilling took off and rushed towards Raditz's ki signature.

'_I'm coming buddy hold on,_' Krillin thought nervously.

Raditz was in the crater his space craft had created, trying to reason with an increasingly frantic Gohan…

"Gohan, is it? Please stop crying, I have no intention of hurting you or your father, if anything I'd rather just leave, but I can't without your father's allegiance," reasoned an increasingly uncomfortable Raditz who was trying to quieten Gohan's crying.

Gohan began to stop crying as hard as he had been but retained a miserable sniffle which quickly grated on Raditz's nerves. "Ok, would you like me to show you a trick? It'll cheer you up," offered Raditz.

"Okay," was Gohan's nervous but calmer than before reply.

"Here it goes; I call this 'The Double Sunday Display', "stated Raditz as he generated two small, weak and yellow ki orbs in both hands and then merged his hands, before firing the combined blast upwards. The result was a series of brilliant orange and yellow explosions that looked like incredible fireworks. Mesmerised by this Gohan relaxed a little and stopped crying, he looked at Raditz unsure what to say so went with his first thought.

"Wow that was cool, can you please teach me that one day? Um, Uncle Raditz."

Raditz smiled at this. '_The kids not too bad. Gotta say, it makes me think more and more that Kakarott got the better deal_.'

"Sure kid, one day soon hopefully," smiled Raditz lightly patting Gohan's shoulder amazed the boy didn't flinch. 'I h_ate Vegeta for forcing me into this life of petty conquest and errand taking. I'm a Saiyan warrior and he doesn't trust me to do this one thing, despite my decades of total loyalty, monitoring me via the scouter is an insult. I'm sick of being his glorified servant, Kakarott is my brother, I should handle this my way not Vegeta's,_' fumed a resentful Raditz. This inner reflection was broken by a shout from behind him.

"Get away from my son!" Goku roared at Raditz as he was powering up, while Piccolo was silently powering up and glaring at the newest Saiyan.

"Gohan, get in the pod it'll keep you safe," ordered Raditz. The boy was reluctant but did as he was told.

"I don't know why Gohan did what you told him, but I sure as hell won't, no humans are dead by my hand and I'm about to deport you back into space," barked Goku who had finished powering up.

"You're making this harder than it needs to be Goku, now I have to drag you along," sighed Raditz, cursing the interface system in his scouter that kept his Prince informed of his actions.

Pressing the scaning option on his scouter, Raditz turned to Piccolo and was surprised by the readout. "500, 505, 510." Then Piccolo removed his weighted turban and his power level further increased. "522!" Exclaimed a surprised Raditz, slightly disturbed by how the Namekian was now only 78 units away from half of Raditz's power.

Turning to Goku his scouter reading was even more impressive. "503, 508, 513" then when the weighted boots came off Goku there was another increase.

"525!" Raditz shouted, now worried about the possibility of fighting a third member of Earth's warriors, his scouter detected none nearby and so his cocky facade returned.

"Yes, Raditz, and this is only the beginning," warned Goku as Piccolo charged a destructive wave blast and fired toward Raditz.

'U_ff, not too strong but (I) can't afford to get hit just in case I get worn down,_' thought Raditz, firing a ki blast which hit Piccolo's signature move, detonating it.

Blinded by smoke Raditz turned only to receive a staggering blow to the chin from Goku, who took advantage of Raditz's unsteady daze to roundhouse kick Raditz into an energy beam fired by Piccolo. The beam carried Raditz into a set of rocks and then detonated.

'_That hurt. That really, really hurt, no way that attack was 500 power units, unless they can charge attacks... oh shit,_' Raditz thought, realising that Piccolo and Goku were deadlier than he'd given them credit for.

'_Well, I'm going to be very sore tomorrow and the chest armour is pretty dented but I'm in decent shape. Payback time_.' Raditz assessed whilst picking himself off, all the while feeling his rage build.

"He's barely hurt!" shouted a dismayed Goku.

"Yeah we're going to have to try and wear him down," Piccolo reasoned.

"This is your final chance Kakarott, join me now or I kill you, the Namekian and take Gohan," Raditz offered, angered at the fact he couldn't negotiate due to Vegeta's constant watch.

"If you kill us, Earth's other warriors will finish you so it's not much of a threat," sneered Piccolo.

"You're no brother of mine," Goku angrily stated.

"Very well." Raditz groaned, rushing towards Goku, fist pulled back.

"No, not going to work," grinned Piccolo as he stretched his arms to grab and slam Raditz.

It worked, however Raditz grabbed an arm just afterwards and drew Piccolo in.

"Big mistake, Namekian!" Raditz roared as he hammered Piccolo in the face with his free hand. Raditz grinned as he felt one of Piccolo's cheekbones break.

Stunned with pain Piccolo was momentarily defenceless, capitalising on this Raditz kicked him repeatedly in the stomach and then threw a haymaker which sent Piccolo flying into several trees which toppled onto him.

Grinning at his victory, Raditz paused to catch his breath not worried about Goku. '_My brother is probably ready to surrender after seeing that__(,)__' _ Raditz thought.

Just then his scouter beeped, a power level flashed on his display. It read 950 and rising! Turning around he saw Goku facing him with his palms joined on an angle and a blue energy sphere growing between them.

"Kame-Hame-Ha!" bellowed Goku, firing his fully charged attack.

Raditz had no time to dodge or charge an interception beam and so opted to try and block the attack, by raising his arms over his torso and face. The beam collided with him and started to surge around the sides of Raditz until his guard gave out and the majority of the beam hit him full on. Raditz was slammed backwards by the beam and became engulfed in it.

Confident that Raditz was either unconscious or dead, Goku made for Raditz's ship in order to free Gohan. Just as he got his hands on the ship door he heard a rage filled and horrifying voice.

"I don't think so Kakarott!" raged a positively livid Raditz.

His chest armour was crumpled, he was missing a shoulder guard and had burns and cuts all over his body, but the thing that most stood out was the crazed snarl his face had become.

"Double Sunday!" bellowed Raditz, launching a rapidly charged yellow beam at Goku.

Unable to dodge as the beam would hit Gohan, Goku fired a small version of the Kamehameha to deflect the beams trajectory; the result was less than desired. Raditz's attack shifted slightly to the left after Goku's beam hit it, and caught Goku square in the chest. Goku vanished within the blast whilst Raditz glanced around to find Piccolo, not realising he was above him. Piccolo savagely kicked Raditz in the head in a downward motion and as he was caught off guard, Raditz was momentarily stunned. This allowed Piccolo to let loose with a flurry of punches and kicks.

Goku, meanwhile, was slowly getting up and trying to prepare to re-join the fight.

However, Goku's recovery wasn't fast enough to prevent Raditz from regaining his focus. Angered beyond belief Raditz grabbed Piccolo's oncoming fist and pressured it to breaking point, this made Piccolo pause his assault for a moment as the pain was immense.

"I warned you earlier," exploded Raditz, kicking Piccolo in the chest until he heard a satisfying snap of ribs, then he push kicked Piccolo's knee snapping it. He would have ended Piccolo's life with a ki blast had a ki enhanced fist not connected with the side of his skull. Reeling and agonised Raditz staggered away from Piccolo.

"That should hold him for a few seconds, you going to be ok, Piccolo?" Goku called as he began to gather energy at the end of his fingers, which were in the shape of a gun.

"I'll live," Piccolo grunted as he snapped his bones back and positioned his ribs. His Namekian physiology healing him rapidly.

"I will rip you apart! You've disgraced the memory of our parents!" raged Raditz, speeding toward Goku, his fists glowing with Ki.

'_Now or never,_' thought Goku as he fired a deceptively weak Dodon Ray at Raditz.

Raditz fired a blast from his left arm, neutralising Goku's beam. However when he fired another it was intercepted by a Masenko from Piccolo. Undeterred Raditz sent a ki beam straight into Piccolo hurling him into the distance and ploughed on intending to smash into Goku, however he went straight through him. Literally.

"What the fu..." Raditz started before being kicked in small of his back by Goku.

"Afterimage technique, what you see is not always what you get," Goku said as he continued his surprise assault.

Raditz's defence was vicious and within ten seconds he was counter-striking accurately, causing significantly more damage than Goku was. Gaining the upper hand, Raditz lashed out with a wild knee strike and caught Goku making him double over, defenceless.

'_I'm sorry I couldn't protect you Gohan,_' Goku thought, preparing for the death blow Raditz was about to deliver.

Seconds passed and Goku was untouched.

'_Why I am I not dead_?' Goku thought. He looked blearily towards Raditz and saw something that jerked him back to life... his son had rocketed out of the ship and smashed Raditz head on in the chest. Raditz momentarily went down and Gohan collapsed exhausted.

'_I have to get Gohan out of here_!' Goku screamed inwardly, forcing himself up and toward Gohan. He called his flying nimbus cloud and placed Gohan on it, giving the cloud the instruction to go to the Lookout.

Relived that his son would be safe he turned his attention to Piccolo who had wearily flown back and had reengaged a now conscious Raditz.

'_Oh Kami, he's getting pounded_.' At that moment a sickening crunch was heard as Raditz broke Piccolo's left collarbone with a ki augmented punch. _'Gotta help him, it's all down to this_.' Goku thought determinedly as he streaked back into the fight his limbs blurring as he struck at Raditz.

'_Good, now I can heal,'_ Piccolo thought, as he popped his bone into place and waited a few agonising seconds for it to refuse. _'That hurt. Raditz must have a weakness, we just need to keep hitting him__until we find it, if we can keep fighting that long. We're in a worse shape than Raditz right now, maybe it's time I used my last resort,_' Piccolo mused, as he rushed in to aid Goku.

Piccolo and Goku attacked Raditz simultaneously, the invading Saiyan struggling to fend the warriors off as they worked as a team. Even though they were more evenly matched, the duo began to weaken and Raditz clawed back his upper hand as he defended more attacks and landed increasingly powerful hits on his brother and the Namekian. As Raditz landed a side kick on Piccolo, Goku landed a lucky hit on Raditz's tail, making him freeze in pain as his tail uncoiled.

"Gah!" Raditz gasped overcome with pain.

"Goku, his tail is his weak spot. Grab it!" Piccolo shouted as he put two fingers to his head and charged ki.

"Ok, but what do I do when I grab it?" Goku asked as he ducked under a kick from Raditz.

"Hold him until I finish charging this beam and then move from him quick, when I fire!"Piccolo snarled, trying to concentrate.

"How long have I gotta hold him? " Goku wheezed out between blows from Raditz.

"A couple of minutes," Piccolo replied.

"As Goku successfully grabbed his tail, Raditz completely froze and began to struggle in order to get remove from Goku's grasp.

"Why do you continue to fight me? We could all die for the sake of your ideals," Raditz growled, ceasing his futile struggle.

"If I die the dragon balls will be used to wish me back, so honestly, it's a small price to pay in order to stop you," Goku explained.

"You can resurrect people?!" Raditz exclaimed in shock.

"With the Dragon balls I can do anything," Goku boasted in order to unnerve Raditz.

A beep rang out from Raditz's scouter signalling Vegeta's incoming broadcast. "So, artificats that can grant any wish... how very useful. See you in a year Raditz, if they don't kill you before I do," Vegeta drawled over the scouter before he disconnected.

'_Oh no, if Vegeta uses these dragon balls he'll wish for immortality and then kill me as I'd be surplus to requirements,_' Raditz panicked.

"Kakarott, my superior, Prince Vegeta has been observing me the whole time and has orchestrated everything. He knows about the Dragon balls and wants to use them to gain immortality, he'll kill all us all for sport if this happens. Please let me go and together maybe we'll be able to beat him when he arrives," Raditz pleaded.

"I don't believe you'd help us, I have no reason to trust you," Goku retorted, enraged at what he viewed as his brother's vain attempt to save trick him.

"I swear to you, I am not lying," Raditz said, losing hope.

"It's done Goku, move!" Piccolo shouted firing his new move, the Special Beam Cannon.

"We aren't done talking about this brother!" Raditz screamed, grabbing Goku's head in one last effort, pinning him in place. The beam went straight towards them and bored through Raditz and then Goku.

'_I will make you see sense and you will bring me back to kill that traitor Vegeta,_' Raditz thought in his last breath.

'_The Earth and Gohan are safe now, my job's done,_' was Goku's last thought before his vision was enveloped with light.

A mere minute before Krillin was had just entered visual range of Raditz's ship and could faintly see Goku and Raditz struggling.

'_Hold on a minute more, buddy,'_ Krillin thought as he sped towards the fight. As he got closer to the fight he saw Piccolo fire his beam and froze, horrified, as it tore through Raditz and Goku.

"GOKU!" Krilling exploded in grief and fury.

'_Piccolo did this; I'll tear him apart for this_.' Revenge was the one thing burning through Krillin's mind as he landed and strode, aura blazing, towards Piccolo. As he was got closer he saw an incredibly wounded and exhausted Piccolo hobble towards Goku and check his pulse. A confused Krillin stopped from firing his prepared Kame-hame-ha at Piccolo.

"Why are you bothering to check if he's alive?" Krillin demanded from Piccolo.

"I'm more wrecked than I thought, I didn't even sense you were here. I didn't plan to kill Goku, I wanted to fight him fairly, not kill him inadvertently like this. He chose to hold Raditz and to die honourably. He was admittedly a noble man and deserved a fitting death, not this. Also, more importantly, I owe him my life from early on in the fight" Piccolo explained too tired to fully care if Krillin believed him.

"Luckily for you I believe that. Now what do we do?" Krillin asked.

"Well firstly we need to take Goku's body to the lookout, then you need to break the news to the rest of the humans, also I need to heal. There are more pressing matters though... Raditz warned of an alleged group of fellow Saiyans who now know of the Dragon Balls and intend to take them by force. Obviously we need to prevent this. I suggest you and the other humans train with Kami and find out if the Saiyans are coming. I will train Goku's son, his potential is greater than all of us combined," Piccolo reasoned.

"Gohan's a kid, how strong can he be?!" an incredulous Krillin asked.

"He floored Raditz with one blow when angered," Piccolo simply stated.

"ChiChi will not be happy about this, it'll take some serious convincing, although if these Saiyans are coming then I guess we'll have no choice but to train him. I reckon you're probably the best equipped to drag his anger out and teach him to use it, although I and Yamcha will be probably be keeping tabs on you on ChiChi's behalf so don't be too harsh or you'll regret it. Pfft training with Kami is pointless, each of us 'humans' as you kindly call us surpassed him nearly two years ago. I have an idea regarding training though so don't worry," Krillin replied.

"Intriguing, explain more later. Right now we need to go," Piccolo said as he slowly hovered towards the Lookout.

Picking up Goku, Krillin's grief was eased very slightly at the thought of soon seeing his old friend again. Then he scowled when he'd noticed Raditz's body.

"What do we do with that thing's body?" Krillin asked Piccolo, tempted to leave it for the animals.

"Blast it to ash," Piccolo darkly called out.

"With pleasure," Krillin grimaced, whilst firing a wide blast from his eyes at Raditz, incinerating him.

Piccolo and Krillin slowly flew towards the Lookout, dejected and unsure of the future.

Elsewhere, in an old ruin a meditating old woman snapped out from her trance.

"Raditz must return," she wheezed.

What is this new training plan that Krillin has? What's happened to Goku and Raditz? And who is this old, mysterious woman and what are her intentions?

Find out in the next exciting instalment of DBZ: Heroes of Humanity!

Thanks for the follows and reviews everyone, please continue to give feedback any is welcome.

Also once again a big thank you to my editor Apollo1147 whose continued support and advice has helped me improve my writing style and the quality of the piece immensely.


	3. The Dawn of Earth Special Forces

Krillin floated gently towards the floor of the Lookout, his demeanour that of a truly defeated man. Piccolo in a much dishevelled state was close behind, waiting for the correct moment to join the impromptu meeting of warriors.  
"Krillin! Who's that in your arms?" Yamcha asked squinting towards the glare that obscured Krillin.  
"It's Goku, he didn't make it guys... His scumbag brother didn't either though," Krillin replied quietly as he landed trying to control his rage and grief.  
The other warriors were stunned into complete silence.  
"How come Piccolo survived yet Goku didn't?" Tien asked eventually, incredibly suspicious of Piccolo's presence.  
_'Okay, I know we need Piccolo, I'll have to lie and paint him in a positive light,'_ Krillin thought.  
"Raditz tried to kill both Goku and Piccolo with a suicide move; Goku went in front of Piccolo in order to save him, clearly he thought he was worth the sacrifice," Krillin lied, hoping his friends would buy it.  
"If Goku thought Piccolo was worth saving then we should respect that," Chaiotzu squeaked.  
"There's something I need to clarify. Kami, I know you're here, I need your powers," Piccolo interjected as the warriors began discussing how to break the news of Goku's death to the others.  
"Yes, Piccolo, I'm here and I know why you want me to use my abilities," Kami replied, appearing from nowhere.  
"Well, was Raditz lying or not?" Krillin demanded, his temper now getting away from him.  
"Unfortunately not, they will be here just within a year and are many times more powerful than Raditz," Kami replied wearily.  
"Who's coming?" Yamcha asked confused.  
"Saiyans. More of Raditz's race and they want the Dragon Balls," Piccolo answered.  
"Great, we've lost Goku and now homicidal aliens want to kill us all... Anyone got any ideas on what to do?" Yamcha asked.  
"Goku can be revived in a year and I'm going to get him special training in Otherworld, as for you all, I know of no way to aid your training," Kami replied.  
"So, essentially we're screwed if Goku's training isn't enough?" Yamcha asked, sarcasm evident in every word.  
"No, the boy Gohan is our last line of defence. His potential power is tremendous when angered and with proper training from me he'll be able to harness all of it," Piccolo stated, whilst pacing impatiently.  
"Why would we trust you with Gohan? And how can he be that strong?" Chaoitzu enquired, his voice uncharacteristically aggressive in tone. _'He's a child, as Crane students we had to kill as children, I refuse to let him corrupt Gohan,' _Chaoitzu ranted internally.  
"Chaoitzu, we can trust him, he's different now. I sense it; he won't harm Gohan and won't force him to kill. Also, I sensed a huge power spike earlier and the signature was definitely Gohan's, so he is our best bet other than Goku," Tien explained.  
"How do you know all this? Yamcha asked dubiously.  
"The third eye isn't just a conversation starter," Tien glared, slightly offended at Yamcha's doubt.  
"Fine, let him train Gohan, I'm not telling Chi-Chi about it though," Chaoitzu relented.  
"I'll tell you my entire plan soon, right now, I have to tell Chi-Chi about Goku and Kami has to send Goku to his training," Krillin said striding towards the living area of the Lookout.  
"We should leave him, break the news to the others and- where's Kami gone!?" Yamcha asked.

_'Where am I?'_ Goku thought looking at his odd cloud surroundings and the huge procession of mist like things in front of him. _'Okay... Well, no one around…ahh, cool, there's a palace thing up ahead. May as well check it out!'_ Goku decided.  
Flying at top speed above the queue of mist, Goku neared the palace entrance when a blue hand sprang out in front of his face.  
"Hi! What's this place and who are you?" Goku asked the tall, blue coloured and horned guy in front of him who was wearing the attire of an average office worker, complete with a hideous polka dot tie.  
"My name is unimportant; I am an Ogre guard of Otherworld and you've skipped the line! Get back now!" the guard bellowed.  
"But I need something to eat and somewhere to train, I'm bored and starving," Goku complained.  
"I don't care, back or I'll force you back! Snarled the guard, getting in Goku's face.  
"Bring it," Goku replied eagerly.  
"I suggest, young ogre that you leave, he's with me. Also I believe he's five seconds away from ki blasting you into hell," a regal yet aged voice called out.  
Goku and the ogre guard wheeled around and both saw a familiar face.  
"Oh, hi Kami," Goku greeted casually.  
"Ah sir! I apologise profusely. King Yemma is actually on a break so seeing him will be easy. Good luck on your business and please don't report me," the ogre nervously said whilst backing away.  
"Thank you for your-ahem-'help'," Kami responded whilst walking slowly through the entrance to Yemma's palace.  
"Come on, Goku we have people to see," Kami beckoned.  
"Okay, I was looking forward to fighting that guy though," Goku grumbled as he entered.  
The first thing Goku noticed was the immense mahogany desk at the end of the entrance, easily 150 feet wide. The second thing he noticed was the huge red ogre in a suit. He was easily 50 foot wide and 75 feet tall, with a hat stating he was King Yemma.  
"Ahh Kami, good to see you again, who do you have here?" asked Yemma gruffly.  
"His name is Goku, he died protecting the Earth and I wish for him to train with the North Kai. His potential is great and he is fully capable of the task," Kami explained, somewhat hurriedly.  
"Goku... Yes. I processed your brother earlier, he did not take my verdict that he goes to HELL very well. I had to fight him and throw him in myself. Well, very few have got to the end of Snake Way but your welcome to try providing you believe you're capable," Yemma stated.  
"I'm up for any challenge, my brother has made me realise just how weak I am compared to others in the galaxy, I refuse to let others suffer due to my failing," Goku answered with incredible determination.  
"You may go then; the guide will be here shortly to take you to the start of Snake Way," Yemma rumbled, cautiously hoping the young warrior would make it.  
"Alright! I can hardly wait to start my training," Goku grinned, punching the air enthusiastically.  
"Yes, quite. Thank you Yemma, I must go now to attend other matters, good luck Goku and see you in a year," Kami said diplomatically, trying not to dissuade Goku by pointing out the danger he would face. After all, ignorance was bliss.  
"See ya, Kami," Goku beamed whilst waving.  
"Goodbye Kami, I hope the next time we meet is under less tumultuous circumstances," Yemma boomed out.  
With a last look at the Check in Station Kami teleported back to the Lookout.

"Why did he have to be so stupidly brave?!" Chi-Chi sobbed, having been informed of her husband's passing only minutes ago.

"Chi-Chi, I knew Goku better than nearly anyone, you and I know he's up in Otherworld grinning goofily at the fact he saved you and Gohan. He did it for you and would hate seeing you so sad," Krillin replied in a soothing voice, momentarily forgetting his rage at his friend's death.

"He's right Chi-Chi and he'll be back in a year what with the Dragon Balls," Bulma said, trying to console her friend, even though she was shattered by the news of her best friend's death.

_'I have to keep it together, right now Chi-Chi needs you, you can let it earlier,' _she told herself, holding back a flood of tears that would be unleashed in private.

"Yeah I guess he will be," Chi-Chi sniffed, crying slightly less heavily thanks to her friend's kindness although she was still pretty hysterical. 

"Chi-Chi I'll be back later, I have to tell Roshi, the others and Gohah. I promise you though I will make sure this type of thing never happens again," Krillin vowed as he left the first living quarters.

As he walked to the other rooms Krillin sensed Chaiotzu and decided to speak to him, he needed something to take his mind off his task.

"How is Chi-Chi?" Chaiotzu asked worriedly.

"Terrible, but she seems a bit calmer after we pointed out we can revive Goku," Krillin replied wearily, as he massaged the back of his neck with his right hand.

"Oh, have you told her about Gohan's training yet?" Chaiotzu enquired.

"Kami no! She'd lose it completely. Um theoretically could you use your empathy and telepathic powers to calm her down so she'll agree calmly to our plan with Gohan?" Krillin proposed hesitantly, wary of how Chaiotzu would take the request as he despised manipulating people.

Chaiotzu's eyes began to glow a soft blue as his physic powers flared and Krillin felt his gi tighten around the collar, then the mental grip slackened and glow faded from Chaiotzu's eyes as he calmed down.

"Sorry Krillin, Shen used to make me manipulate people and I swore not do it again, the most I'll do is nudge her emotions towards our favour a bit," Chaiotzu explained, slightly ashamed over his reaction.

"No worries man, thank you." Krillin said relieved.

He moved to the next room and informed Roshi, Korin, Yajirobe, Oolong and Launch.

Launch did not take the news well at all. "I virtually helped raise him as a boy, who could kill that sweet, innocent young man?" Launch yelled, her hair flickering to blonde for an instant before switching back to blue. "I'm going to find Tien." She sniffed as she ran off crying softly.

"I can't believe that goofy guy has actually died, he seemed too full of life to die." Oolong muttered sadly, looking oddly stressed. "I have to go to visit someone on Goku's behalf." Oolong said as he slumped away dejectedly.

Although intrigued Krillin let him go so he could talk further with the three fighters in the room.

"I can't believe Goku is gone... I genuinely thought my brightest pupil was unbeatable," Korin lamented, suddenly showing all his centuries of age as he leaned heavily on his staff. "I can't believe how weak all are compared to these Saiyans… if we'd been strong enough Goku may have survived with our aid." Korin continued getting more and more depressive.

"I know, Korin, we all felt Goku would always make it through in the end. But we have to accept it, the Saiyans will not give us the luxury of grieving time," Krillin sighed in reply, rubbing his temples to ease his stress induced headache.

"If I were younger I'd train and fight with you, Krillin, but I just can't anymore... I want to do the right thing by Goku and avenge the boy, but it's not possible," Roshi snarled, enraged and grief stricken by the news, which was weird considering how rarely he was silent.

Yajirobe remained silent and in the background, looking oddly composed and nonchalant about the whole situation.

"Korin, I will need you to produce as many Senzu Beans as possible, we're gonna need 'em. Also is there a move you haven't taught anyone? Even if you think it's not too useful?" Krillin asked, looking for any potential advantages against the Saiyans.

"I'm already increasing the Senzu crop size. The only technique I have that you all don't know is a combination of multiform and afterimage, normally they can't be combined but with practice it can be done," Korin answered, slightly annoyed he couldn't be more helpful.

"Excellent, Master Korin! Teach it to Tien as soon as you can, his experience with multiform will mean he'll pick it up fast. Also, that way you can both teach Yamcha, myself, Chaoitzu and hopefully, if he can be bothered Yajirobe," Krillin explained to Korin, who then left to find Tien.

"Master Roshi, I want you to look for new students, you can honour Goku by bringing on a new generation of Earth defenders. I'll help you find them but only after the Saiyans are defeated, I refuse to make children targets. Until then train as much as possible and look after Chi-Chi and Bulma, then any debt you think you owe Goku will be settled," Krillin reasoned to Roshi.

"Sometimes, I wonder who the master really is," Roshi remarked genuinely impressed and grateful for his students advice.

"No need to wonder, Old Man, I'm clearly the master!" Krillin joked, regaining his cheery persona for just an instant.

"Young whippersnapper! I oughtta put the training shell back on you! Still, I'll let it go, I'm too happy about being able to 'look after' Bulma and Chi-Chi!" Roshi joked, reminding Krillin that deep down he was a funny old pervert.

"Perv," Krillin groaned. "Besides the shell is nothing compared to Popo's um 'methods'. Krillin shuddered, as he stared at Yajirobe, who had remained silent and in the corner of room. His lack of reaction angering Krillin greatly.

"Do you just not care?! You've said nothing! I suppose you'll hang back eating like a coward whilst we fight to death?" Krillin snapped, utterly disgusted.

"Shut up, Krillin, Goku was a great friend; I just wish I'd been there. And I will train and fight in order to honour Goku, I owe him that," Yajirobe replied, uncharacteristically impassioned and admirable.

"Hmm, maybe you're braver than you make out, when the Saiyans arrive you'll need to be, Bro," Krillin replied as he walked towards the bedroom Gohan was in.

_'How can I tell the kid his Dad's dead? It'll crush him. He's too young to understand why it happened and on top of that, I have to ask him to train with one of the most treacherous people alive so he has the chance of not being killed by Saiyans. Krillin, face it, your life is one long soap opera. I'll tell him gently; maybe Popo can help me out with it,'_ Krillin thought bitterly and nervously as he walked to the bedroom door and went in.

Popo was sat on a stool next to a very subdued Gohan who was feeling the effects of his impact with Raditz.

"Popo, I think you know why I'm here," Krillin whispered.

"I do, tell him now before the others do," Popo replied sadly.

"Yeah. Gohan I have some bad news about your Dad... After you rescued him, he rescued you. Once you were safe he fought Raditz again and well, he…uh…he…um, he died killing Raditz. He was a hero Gohan and he'll be back in a year," Krillin explained awkwardly as he realised he'd not done a good job of it at all.

Gohan stood up, rigid as a board, head down and shaking. Krillin believed he was crying.

"I know buddy, let it all out," Krillin consoled as Mr. Popo went to get Chi-Chi.

"I'm not crying," Gohan whispered so quietly it was barely audible.

"I heard earlier that more Saiyans are coming, Raditz was a Saiyan right?" Gohan asked in a slightly louder voice than before.

_'This is not the reaction I was expecting, what am I going to do?'_ Krillin thought, getting rather worried and disturbed.

"Well, yeah, he was," Krillin replied nervously as he frantically tried to send a telepathic message to Chaiotzu to bring Bulma over.

"These Saiyans are as bad right?" Gohan hissed, the air around him becoming fractionally hazy.

Krillin merely nodded.

"I want to make them pay, for my Dad and all the other families they hurt... I will make them all suffer!" Gohan screamed in rage. His power level skyrocketed and his aura flared shaking the entire Lookout and ruining the bedroom.

_'That power is huge! Nearly double Raditz's, hmm…he's going to cause serious damage if this goes on.'_ Krillin thought, thinking of his next plan.

"I can help you get the Saiyans back," a calm yet wavering voice called from the doorway.

_'Piccolo if you're saying he can train with you before Chi-Chi gives us permission I'm screwed,'_ Krillin mentally spat at Piccolo, confident his limited telepathy would get the gist of it.

Piccolo sneered and carried on. "Train with me and I can help you become greater than any Saiyan. Your revenge will be certain. If you don't, you'll lack the skill and control to succeed," Piccolo stated with his arms crossed.

"You promise I'll be able to win after your training?" Gohan asked, calming slightly.

Piccolo's reply was simplistically honest. "Yes."

"Okay, I agree," Gohan said.

His power level plummeted and his aura faded out and he promptly fell back on the half destroyed bed, falling asleep instantly due to the strain.

Popo came running in with Chi-Chi right behind.

"Gohan! What happened to my little boy? Is he okay?" Chi-Chi demanded rounding on Krillin, her grief overridden with motherly concern for the moment, while Mr. Popo checked on Gohan.

"He's okay, just asleep!" Krillin replied, terrified of Chi-Chi's grief fuelled wrath.

"As for what happened…well I told him about Goku. He went eerily quiet and asked if the coming Saiyans were like Raditz, then I told him 'Yeah,' and that Raditz was a Saiyan too. Then he powered up to a godlike level, swore to enact a complete and violent vengeance on all evil Saiyans, nearly shook the Lookout apart and then decided to train under Piccolo," Krillin informed Chi-Chi whilst backing into a corner expecting a volatile reaction.

Piccolo had slipped outside the doorway and waited to be dragged into the discussion.

"My Gohan is a kind, innocent, harmless boy, he's not capable of wanting revenge or such destruction! He's five for Kami's sake! His power can't be more than an average man's!" Chi-Chi retorted, her wavering tone making it clear that the following argument would be brutal.

"Kami told you before we got here Goku was a Saiyan, he's all those qualities you mentioned but as a kid he killed Red Ribbon army soldiers without much thought, especially when friends were in danger. So as a half Saiyan Gohan's natural aggression will be high and probably his power is emotion based like Goku. As for the power, I guess as a hybrid he's naturally advanced, he needs training and the only one who can give him it is Piccolo," Krillin explained evenly, trying to seem reasonable and non-threatening, to the close to tears Chi-Chi.

"Okay, so he may have a small temper and he obviously takes after his Dad in terms of power," Chi-Chi begrudgingly admitted, however her voice tightened as she spoke and her eyes flashed making Krillin wonder if he could blast a hole in the ceiling and fly off before Chi-Chi could reach him.

"That said(,) I refuse to let him train and fight! He will not end up like his poor father! He's going to study, become a scholar or professor and live a long life! Even if I did let him train it would never be with that green murdering monster!" Chi-Chi exploded, angry tears rolling down her face, making her look rather deranged, especially when she began slowly pacing back and forth.

"He needs to train. He's our be..." Krillin started.

"I said 'No,'," Chi-Chi interrupted angrily beginning to form a basic ki blast in each hand.

_'Well, I'm screwed.'_ Krillin thought fearfully.

"If he doesn't train he will die," Mr. Popo calmly stated as he stood in front of Chi-Chi.

"Why would you say that?" Chi-Chi snapped, really starting to lose her composure again.

"Two reasons: first of all, if Krillin and the others lose, the Saiyans will kill us all and Gohan wouldn't be able to save even himself without training, therefore he'd never become a scholar anyway. Secondly, being at that power level for just 20 seconds has rendered him unconscious for the next few hours, the older he gets the more powerful he'll become and the less he'll be able to handle it. If he ever got frustrated or very angry the strain may kill him," Mr. Popo reasoned.

"Oh Kami, I didn't realise it'd be that bad... He can train - just not with Piccolo," Chi-Chi relented, her concern for Gohan overriding her fears of his future and her grief.

"I have to train him. I'm the most equipped to deal with anger out of all of us. Also, Krillin and the others will be, I'm guessing, unreachable. I will not harm the boy, I owe Goku my life. I will honour that debt," Piccolo assured Chi-Chi.

_'He's more reasonable than I thought, soft spoken even, not like his father. Still how can I trust him?'_ Chi-Chi debated inwardly, her judgement still slightly clouded by emotional turmoil.

"How can I trust your word?" Chi-Chi asked suspiciously, her eyes narrowed in distrust.

"A multitude of reasons, the main though is the fact that if the boy is harmed we lose a valuable asset against the Saiyans, who if successful will destroy Earth. If they do that obviously I'll be dead and therefore I can't conquer it. That is unacceptable," Piccolo replied bluntly and honestly.

"Also, he kept his word after the last World Tournament and never really did anything evil, so we know he's pretty honest," Krillin added helpfully.

"Hmm, even so, I want checks on them, to make sure Gohan is okay," Chi-Chi adamantly said whilst scowling at being forced into agreeing with the training.

"Well, we fighters will be busy, but Kami can view them and teleport us to them so there's that," Krillin offered.

"I'll train the boy in the wasteland near West City, that way you can check on him yourself each week," Piccolo said growing impatient with Chi-Chi.

"Well, okay, then I agree to those terms," Chi-Chi grumbled still unhappy with the situation and close to tears again.

"Awesome, right Mr. Popo, can you stay with Gohan and Chi-Chi please? Oh and Piccolo, please come with me, we need to see Kami," Krillin sighed, relieved the issue was resolved.

"Of course Krillin," Mr. Popo smiled sadly.

"Sure, I've nowhere better to be," Piccolo grunted, secretly glad to leave the annoying woman who had begun crying the minute they'd left.

_'Can't believe I lost to that giant fat oaf,'_ Raditz snarled inwardly as he trudged through the searing, barren, red valley he was currently in.

"Unbearable heat, no food, same blank landscape everywhere and..." Raditz was interrupted as an average sized yellow creature jumped from an outcrop of rocks straight at Raditz. Roaring his frustration Raditz kicked it in the face and vaporised it with energy from his left hand. "And these friggin' things are absolutely everywhere, they don't let off!" Raditz bellowed.

Angered he blasted a large cliff to pieces and slumped on a boulder.

_'How did it come to this? Guess I deserved it in some way.'_ An image of himself holding a young bloodied woman flashed through his head. _'Ahiru, I failed you, I never got justice for you,'_ Raditz inwardly lamented.

_'I better sleep.'_ Raditz decided, confident his recent destruction would deter any would-be attackers.

Sleep didn't come easily.

_'You need to leave Son, take Ahiru and grab a shuttle, Frieza is going to kill us all," a middle aged woman screamed over a comlink._

_'Where's father?' asked Raditz, as he ran hand in hand with the same young woman, not doubting the threat was real._

_'Delaying the attack,' the older woman said sadly._

_'Damn it! Okay, just get on a shuttle and meet us on Trovant,' Raditz growled as he neared an empty shuttle._

_'I can't, I'm an hour from the nearest shuttle, mine was destroyed by a Frieza squadron and the fight has left me too drained to fly.' Raditz's mother sighed sadly._

"_I'll come collect you then," Raditz growled as he got in the ship. The image fades to a view of Planet Vegeta from space. "I'm coming," Raditz wheezed as he set a course for the capital._

_An energy ball flared towards the planet and everything went white._

_"Mother!" Raditz roared unleashing energy everywhere as he shot upright, levelling the area._

'It's just a dream, memories,' Raditz thought with difficulty.

"I'll find you, Mother, even if I have to blow hell itself apart," Raditz vowed as he stalked off deeper into hell.

"Welcome back, Kami," Krillin greeted as Kami walked to the now usual Lookout assembly point.

"Thank you Krillin, I set Goku on the path to his new training master he should get there in three to four months which gives him plenty of time to train and learn," Kami replied wearily.

"That's great news, Kami." Tien smiled.

"Right, you all know I have a plan that will enable us all to train as much as Goku," Krillin boomed out to the assembled fighters.

There was a general murmur of interest and everyone stopped chatting.

"Now,lately I've been talking to Kami more as we've trained up here so much, I got kinda interested about other aspects of Otherworld other than the bit I went to after the um 'incident'," Krillin started before pausing for breath.

"By incident do you mean the time my bastard brother snapped you like a twig?" Piccolo mocked, ensuring everyone remembered he was not one of them.

"Yes that," Krillin glared coldly.

"That wasn't the brother I ate was it?" Yajirobe smirked at Piccolo.

Piccolo merely scowled and turned from him clearly disgruntled.

"Anyway, Kami said there's Hell, true paradise/utopia where heroes train and live with their families and then the worlds of the gods," Krillin informed getting them back on track.

"There are more gods?! I thought there was only King Kai above Kami?" Yamcha asked incredulously.

"No, he has three counterparts, one for each galaxy in the universe," Kami informed them.

"Thank you, Kami. So I thought to myself when Kami told Goku and I about the possibility of training with King Kai; 'why couldn't we train with the others?' I discovered that we couldn't as you can only find the path of the Kai in charge of the sector you die in," Krillin stated loudly.

"So it's not possible after all?" Yamcha butted in.

"Yamcha, dude, I wasn't finished. This was a problem until I realised that despite their being no way to find the paths from the check in station you could either go to Utopia and find them there, unfortunately for that you have to die. Or I realised Kami can teleport from the check in to the pathways of each Kai," Krillin further elaborated.

"Therefore, Gents, we can train with the four Kai, aside from Gohan and Piccolo who have to remain on Earth," Krillin finished smugly.

"What is the point of this if our two strongest fighters don't benefit?" Chaiotzu asked slightly underwhelmed.

"That is the issue guys, we need a plan to include everyone," Krillin replied frustrated by the lack of finality with the plan.

"The paths of the Kai are all the same length and as, apart from Yajirobe, you're faster fliers than Goku, it should only take you two months to reach your goal," Kami informed helpfully hoping the extra time would help.

"If that's the case, if you can take six months training and coerce your trainers to take you back to the check in. Then you meet Kami who returns you to the Lookout where you teach each other new techniques for four months. With the remaining months you teach Gohan and myself, if time is short we spend a couple of months in the Room of Soul and Time," Piccolo planned.

_'Well the silence is nice but strange, I just solved their problem,'_ Piccolo thought as the other fighters stared at him.

"That is brilliant," Krillin said, surprised at Piccolo's helpfulness.

"Yes, but we won't need to waste time in the ROSAT, even if pressed for time, as Chaiotzu can use his powers to telepathically teach you fast," Tien proposed.

"I agree to that, but how do we decide who trains where?" Chaiotzu asked.

"Well, we have no idea what the other Kai are like so just choose at random," Krillin shrugged.

"I'll train with West Kai," Tien said.

"South Kai," Yajirobe grunted.

"East," Chaiotzu sighed, annoyed he was split from Tien.

"West," Yamcha said.

"I'll join Chaiotzu," Krillin announced, a tad disgruntled about not joining Goku.

"Excellent, when do you wish to leave?" Kami asked in a more upbeat tone than earlier.

"In a day, that way we can say goodbye to everyone," Krillin replied.

"Yeah, Launch will kill me for leaving," Tien grumbled.

"One last thing guys, what do we call ourselves as a group? I like 'The Z Fighters'," Yamcha asked.

"That name is awful. Why Z?" Krillin replied groaning.

"Well, we're the second group we've assembled and 'Z' means 'second' in Chinese," Yamcha explained.

"How about Team Three Star? After the dragon ball hat Gohan wears." Krillin suggested jokily.

"I prefer 'Earth Special Forces'," Tien said in a serious tone which suggested it was a bad idea to argue with him over the matter.

"Why don't we use both? 'Z Fighters' amongst friends and 'Earth Special Forces' in public," Chaiotzu suggested.

There was a murmur of general consent.

"Right, everyone go do what you have to and meet here this time tomorrow," Krillin ordered.

With that everyone but Krillin, Tien, Kami and Chaiotzu departed for home.

"What do you mean it's nearly a million kilometres long?!" Goku shouted in surprise at the start of Snake Way to his guide.

"Yes, sir, it is, I suggest you get going," the guide replied as he sped off, wary of Goku's outburst and potential wrath.

"Well, they say a journey starts with a single step," Goku grumbled as he set off on Snake Way.

How will Gohan do on his first day of training with Piccolo?

Will Launch really kill Tien?

What will Goku discover on his journey?

And where is that old witch?

Find out next time!

I am now starting a question and answer section! Review any queries and they'll be answered at the end of each chapter.

I have a question for you first; who is currently in your opinion the best character in the story?

Once again a massive thank you to my editor Apollo 1147 for her great insights and patient editing work.

Please Review guys or at least spread the word!


	4. The Trial Begins

'Yes, of course I'll go out with you Bulma, Launch too, you say? Well, if you insist,' Roshi beamed as he transformed to his muscular form. He got up and swept Bulma off of her feet and placed her on his bed when Launch with her blonde hair trailing behind her came in and sat next to Bulma.

'We want to please you,' the beauties said in unison.

'I know,' Roshi cackled as he went towards them and started to...

"Wake up, you dirty old man!" an ancient female voice called out.

"What the hell?" Roshi muttered, sleepy and annoyed with whoever it was that had ruined his fantasy dream.

Turning around he saw an old, tiny woman dressed in black, witch clothing riding a mystical ball.

"Oh crap, what do you want, Baba?" Roshi asked angrily at his sister; they'd been arguing for centuries.

"Roshi, good to see you're still alive. I heard you had died of a stroke when your adult collection was destroyed by a stray turtle destruction wave," Baba replied drily.

"Kamehameha. It's Kamehameha!" Roshi bellowed.

This awoke Krillin, Tien and Launch who were staying at Kame House for the night.

"The hell is going on?" Tien shouted as he ran into Roshi's room, ki and aura flaring.

"Oh, I'm winding my brother up," Baba chuckled, causing Tien and the newly arrived Krillin to power down.

"Baba, you only turn up when bad things are going to happen. Why are you here?" Tien asked coldly, annoyed he'd been dragged out of his warm bed, and more rage-inducing away from Launch.

"Well, gentlemen, I am here to directly aid you. I noticed when reading all your energies that three of you have a form of mystical buffer that prevents you from using your maximum power and slows your progress. I'm here to remove these barriers," Baba explained in a moody tone.

"All well and good, but I know you wouldn't come to us just for that; you'd summon us. So, why are you really here?" Tien asked sceptically as he started to make coffee.

"Well, you're right, there is something else. I had a vision; it's not necessarily bad though..." Baba started to reply.

"Bullshit! Every single vision, prophecy or legend so far has been literally evil," Krillin interrupted cynically, his mood at this early hour was pretty foul.

"I'm with Krillin on this," Roshi muttered darkly.

"Fine, the prophecy is pretty much awful. I saw the aftermath of a great battle, all other combatants were unconscious or worse, they included some of you and some others I didn't recognise. A teenaged Gohan and someone else I don't know were the only ones of you left standing, then a kienzan attack caught Gohan by surprise and one of the injured went into the attacks path," Baba informed them all, not surprised by the sick look on the faces of all that were assembled.

"Well, the fact we have a future at least shows we survived the Saiyan invasion," Krillin sighed trying to find a positive aspect of the vision.

"Sadly, Krillin that may not be totally true," Tien replied, disheartened.

"Oh, Kami, it gets worse...how isn't it?" Krillin asked, already regretting asking the blatantly mood souring question.

"Her visions only show possible situations and outcomes, as time is not set, the events she described may not happen depending on many factors; such as how we now prepare for this disaster. Or, how we fare against the Saiyans," Roshi elaborated to the others, who became slightly less morose.

"So, if we prepare we may avoid it all, no real need to worry?" Krillin asked trying to get his head around the concept.

"We should still worry, Krillin, as it'll push us harder in our training," Tien replied curtly to Krillin's naive comment.

"Baba, is there any detail on who the combatant is?" Launch asked.

"No, the aura was too intense for me to see," Baba replied sadly.

"Ok, then who was it that saved Gohan?" Launch asked attempting to gain more insight into the possible event.

"Well, that's the problem…" Baba began before losing her nerve.

"Baba, tell me now or I will tri-beam you into the next island chain," Tien growled impatiently, raising his power slightly to emphasise his point.

"Fine, it was Raditz!" Baba yelled in reply.

"How is that even possible? He's dead, not only is he dead, we will never, I repeat, never revive him," Krillin gabbled in panic and outrage.

Launch went completely pale and Turtle woke up at the commotion while Roshi swore profusely.

Tien's response was simplicity itself: "This shit just keeps getting weirder."

"Look, if you all want to survive Raditz needs reviving. Without him, Gohan dies and the villain kills everyone. I know it's risky but he can't train in hell properly and by the time he needs to be revived all of you could kill him singlehandedly," Baba reasoned, trying to rationalise the situation.

"If the training works out, that is," Tien growled in response.

"It's not up to us to decide if we revive him," Roshi barked angrily.

"The hell it isn't! It's us he'll try to kill first!" Krillin snapped back.

"No, I see what Roshi means. Raditz is Goku's brother and killer, it's his right to determine his fate. If he feels he's in some way redeemable, I'll agree to revive him," Tien explained as he sipped his coffee.

"Goku thinks everyone can be redeemed, he'll revive him without a doubt," Krillin sighed in exasperation.

"Yeah, he does. It's a damn good thing he does too, or Yamcha, Chaiotzu and I would be dead, in prison or evil without his influence," Tien calmly pointed out.

"Fine, we'll ask Goku then. I'll get Kami to contact him tomorrow. If Raditz doesn't change, what will we do?" Krillin asked and also relented as he accepted the coffee Launch offered him.

"I'll kill him myself," Tien smirked confidently as he returned calmly to his coffee.

"There are times, dude, where I'm really glad you're not a villain anymore. That grin is completely sadistic," Krillin squeaked, completely creeped out.

"So, now that's sorted, who's strength barriers need unlocking?" Roshi asked Baba irritably. He was in a bad mood and was very much wanting to go back to sleep and more importantly get rid of his sister.

"Yamcha is the first. His are self-imposed due to his lack of faith in himself," Baba began to explain.

"Figures," Tien snorted, his opinion of Yamcha as a fighter since the 'leg incident' had been so low he regarded him as a joke.

"As I was saying..." Baba hissed through clenched teeth.

"Oh, do go on," Roshi muttered peevishly as he sat on Turtle.

"Yajjirobe is the next, he got corrupted after he ate one of King Piccolo's spawn," Baba continued, choosing to ignore her brother's hostility.

"That was the most disgusting thing I'd ever seen," Krillin commented, literally shuddering at the memory.

"Quite. Chaoitzu is the last one, Shen imposed some form of limit on his mental and mystical abilities when he was a boy," Baba informed.

"Another way the bastard screwed us over," Tien growled.

"Right, I must depart; I'll unlock the limits of the others tomorrow," Baba said just before she vanished.

"I hate her," Roshi growled as he stormed back to bed.

"Right, guys, we've got long day ahead tomorrow so we should go back to sleep," Krillin suggested as he staggered towards his room.

"Good idea, I'm knackered. I need to sleep," Tien agreed tiredly.

"I have a better suggestion," Launch winked at Tien as she went over and whispered in his ear.

Tien's face lit up and his ki rose considerably at whatever Launch said.

"Yeah, I'm not so tired anymore, do yourself a favour Krillin and wear headphones," Tien called out, grinning widely as Launch tugged him back to their room.

'Yamcha has Bulma, Goku has ChiChi, Tien has Launch, Chaiotzu has a girlfriend...even Roshi has an on off thing with a fan of his from back in the day...when will I have someone to fight for?" Krillin sighed to himself as he lay in bed, putting on headphones and trying to tune out the noise next door.

As the sun rose over the Lookout, the Z fighters stood assembled with scouters on.

"Remind me why we're wearing these things again," Yamcha asked, disliking the red tint to his vision.

"So we can monitor our progress accurately," Tien replied smugly, still happy from the night before.

"I've had Yajjirobe scan me and Chiaotzu already, I'm 490 and he's 470," Krillin said happily.

"I'll scan you next," Tien informed Yamcha.

"460. Well, it's pretty good," Tien said to Yamcha with barely contained disgust.

"Hey! I haven't powered up yet!" Yamcha protested.

"Fine, go ahead," Tien muttered impatiently as Yamcha charged ki.

"484. Better than I thought," Tien relented. He liked Yamcha, but if he was praised too much he got lazy.

"Let's scan Roshi and see how he's measured up," Chaiotzu chirped as he turned his scouter on.

With that Roshi transformed into his MAX power form which was tall and incredibly muscular.

"350. That's pretty good Roshi," Chaiotzu congratulated as he turned his scouter off.

"Yeah, it's not bad I want to get to a thousand though by the time you guys get back," Roshi replied as he powered down into his normal state.

"That's the spirit. Right then, people, we are all about to depart," Krillin called out as Kami grabbed his left shoulder.

"Ready, Krillin?" Kami asked politely.

He received a swift nod of assent in reply.

"Remember when I transport all of you, run as fast as possible. If Yemma catches you he'll send to hell," Kami warned gravely as he teleported Krillin to the start of the Maple path, the East Kai's personal road.

"I'm thinking one of us needs to train with Goku," Chaiotzu said to the others whilst awaiting Kami's return.

"There's no point. If we went we'd be detracting training time from Goku and as we are really not supposed to be there. Yemma will notice us easily and drag us back," Yamcha replied calmly.

"That's the smartest thing you've ever said," Tien smirked.

"At least I'm not ga..." Yamcha started.

"Finish that sentence and I will break one of your legs again!" Tien growled whilst glaring with all three of his eyes.

"Yeah, ok, I get the message," Yamcha replied quickly, unwilling to push Tien further.

"I can take you two simultaneously. Your destination is easier for me to reach that the others," Kami explained as he reappeared behind Tien and Yamcha.

"I'll miss you both, train well, my former pupils," Popo said as he waved farewell.

As Kami teleported the two warriors to the path of West Kai they began to pass out from the strain.

"We've arrived," Kami wheezed as he rested heavily on his staff.

"Oh, thank the... Holy mother of hell!" Yamcha exclaimed as he saw the immense cobbled path that led to the West Kai's planet; Hardship Way lived up to its name.

"I agree with Yamcha, why the hell it is so uneven?" Tien demanded, his eyes narrowing. It was bad enough it was a million kilometres long.

"It's to deter any attempts to pass it, you can fly over the worst bits and it'll make it harder so you'll gain more power on your journey than the others," Kami replied pointing out the benefits to this.

"Hmm, I suppose it's not too bad," Tien grumbled as he waved to Kami and took off on the path.

"I better catch up to him, bye Kami!" Yamcha shouted as he followed suit.

"Huh, I still have to teleport Yajirrobe," Kami grumbled, tired by the constant teleporting.

"Yo, Green God Guy, where are ya?" Yajirrobe shouted as he took out a sandwich from his travel pack.

"He will not like that..." Roshi warned with a chuckle.

"Roshi is right, I don't like that," Kami scowled at Yajirrobe.

"Grab my shoulder and we'll be off," Kami barked, he was having a very rough day.

"Ok, G-man," Yajirrobe grunted as he finished his sandwich and grabbed Kami's right shoulder. With that Kami teleported one last time to the great pathways of the Kais.

There was just one way to describe the pathway of the South Kai - boring. Well, if you were on foot it was, if you had a car it would be amazing. The whole path was a giant race way with undulating curves and incredibly narrow chicanes; it looped and weaved like a concrete ribbon.

"I wish I had my car right now," Yajirrobe marvelled as he vowed instantly to come back one day with it.

"Yes, it's a marvellous track. Unfortunately, Racers Way is the most bothersome path, it's narrow in places and steep. It is, however, only nine-hundred thousand kilometres, so it's shorter than the other paths," Kami explained with little enthusiasm.

"That's way too long! What do I do?!" Yajirrobe asked, panicking at the scale of his task.

"Run far and fast before Yemma catches you," Kami suggested as he teleported away with a smirk.

"Oh crap," Yajirribe groaned as he broke into a jog along the path, sweating profusely already.

"So...I wonder how Gohan's training is going?" Popo asked Roshi, trying to start a conversation to lift Roshi's spirit.

"If he's anything like his Dad, I bet he's doing brilliantly well," Roshi replied with a slight smile as he motioned for Mr Popo to follow him to Korin's tower.

_'This training is going so badly I may just kill him,'_ Piccolo thought with genuine frustration and rage.

Gohan was dressed in a Gi identical to Goku's, aside from having the demon kanji on his back and in miniature on the front right side. It was torn already and he was getting up from an impact crater, covered in dust and bruises. Also, there was a sword in a scabbard lying several feet away from him.

"Mr. Piccolo, that wasn't fair! I had no warning!" Gohan whined to Piccolo, nearly crying and wincing as he walked towards him.

"The whole point is for you to learn instinctively to block," Piccolo explained impatiently as he considered changing tact. "I will give a warning just before I strike, you are to block, dodge or counterstrike, understand?" Piccolo asked, gritting his teeth in anger at having to concede.

Gohan nodded and relaxed ever so slightly. Seeing this, Piccolo decided to restart the training.

"Block!" Piccolo yelled mightily as he threw a punch at Gohan's face.

"What?!" Gohan gasped as he was too slow to react and was sent spinning backwards into rocks.

_'This is going to be a long ass day,'_ Piccolo growled inwardly as he went for Gohan again.

The days passed by with Gohan going through survival training and being mercilessly sparred by Piccolo. He was constantly injured and losing, and after nearly a month of training had only gained 103 power level units.

As Piccolo fired a mouth beam at the exhausted and injured Gohan something in him clicked into place.

"Enough!" Gohan screamed as he began to rapidly power up, his aura becoming visible again for the first time in a month. "I will not keep losing!" Gohan raged as he manipulated Piccolo's beam, grasping it in his hands. "_You_ block!" Gohan roared sarcastically as he fired the beam back at Piccolo.

_'This is promising,'_ Piccolo thought as he calmly put a hand out to block the beam.

However, as the blast raced towards him he noticed it widen, Gohan was adding huge surge of energy into it.

_'Crap, too late to dodge,'_ Piccolo thought angrily as he put a crossed arm defence up just before the blast hit him.

The force of the rage fuelled energy was so immense it put a nuclear warhead to shame, and Piccolo became engulfed in it, vanishing from sight.

As the air was filled with settling dust and smoke it was impossible to see Piccolo. The fact Gohan couldn't sense his energy anymore shocked him out of his rage.

"Mr. Piccolo, are you ok?" Gohan shakily asked as he stepped towards the direction Piccolo had been in.

"I'm fan-freaking-tastic!" Piccolo wheezed as he emerged from the dust cloud bloodied, bruised and clutching his stomach with his uninjured hand.

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Piccolo! Please don't be mad, I never meant to snap," Gohan apologised quickly, terrified of his trainer's potential wrath.

"Don't apologise, that was the most progress we've made in a month. Stay angry," Piccolo replied impassively, secretly pleased with the boy.

_'Now to see the scouter records,'_ Piccolo thought as he programmed the scouter he kept in an armoured cape pocket.

_'Let's see, his power before my attack was...108, disappointing as usual. During the attack; 508! Well done, Gohan! Now, when he reflected the attack...1158! Crap, I could've been killed. This is very promising,'_ Piccolo thought as he viewed the results.

"Gohan, raise your power level to the max, I need to scan you," Piccolo ordered, intrigued to see if he'd gained permanent power.

As Gohan powered up to his very limit, the scouter beeped strongly and flashed to life, reading a power level of 592.

"Gohan, by unleashing your emotions and Saiyan nature you just gained 484 power level units, in other words you basically gained a Yamcha. Well done," Piccolo praised gruffly, honestly pleased with the progress.

"That's good, but that side of me scares me... I hate it," Gohan admitted honestly.

"It is nothing to fear, you are not an animal, you can control that primal side. You lack faith in yourself, Gohan, but look at earlier; you were enraged beyond belief and where quite capable of killing me. Yet, you didn't. This is proof that you can control your Saiyan nature," Piccolo reasoned, realising he needed to tread relatively carefully or the boy's training would be hampered.

"Yeah, I suppose so... I have felt more in control since the incident..." Gohan replied more optimistically, thinking back to when Piccolo told him he'd transformed via moonlight and to revert him from the Ozaru form the moon had to be blown up.

"Good, now let's take the rest of the day off from sparring, I need to heal," Piccolo stated as he began to hover cross-legged.

"So, I can go home or sleep?" Gohan asked hesitantly.

"No, we're meditating instead and tomorrow you're starting a new month of survival training. I will still be sparring with you too," Piccolo growled with one eye half open.

Deciding not it'd be wise not to argue; Gohan adopted the meditation pose and went silent.

The month passed without any incidents, Piccolo would train intensively on his own for most of the week and then spar with Gohan once a week. The survival training had gone well, in the case that Gohan's power level grew to over 1000, but the hardship had affected his willingness to train. He had honestly felt abandoned as his mother rarely visited due to Piccolo's urging that Gohan needed independence. (very wordy and not very well explained. I would rewrite.)

"Gohan, you've only made limited progress, now we have to train harder. Later, we are going to the Lookout to fight simulated Saiyans. I won't lie it's going to be tough and painful," Piccolo called out as he hovered above a highly dishevelled Gohan.

"No," Gohan said, refusing to turn to Piccolo.

"What do you mean 'no,' you ungrateful brat!?" (seems out of character) Piccolo bellowed, angry at the defiance and lack of respect.

"You've not seen me in ten days, my mother hasn't visited me in 20, thanks to you. I've been out here alone, hungry, injured and scared for over a month. The only interruption being you turning up to ridicule me and then beat me up. So, I've given everything and you demand more despite giving me nothing back, why should I listen to you?" Gohan hissed, hurt by the lack of decency Piccolo had shown him despite his best efforts to befriend him. (seems OOC)

"My methods are harsh, but they work. You wanted revenge and I'm giving you the skills to exact it. Also, I haven't abandoned you. The food you've conveniently found was made by me, you weren't coping and I couldn't watch you starve," Piccolo replied in an oddly softer than usual tone. (even if h is softening, this is too quick, and OOC, Piccolo wouldn't justify himself like that.)

"How do I know you're not lying?" Gohan asked sceptically.

"Because if anyone else had defied me like that I'd have_ Masenko_'d them unconscious and dragged them," Piccolo replied, showing he did at least respect Gohan. (stating the obvious, you don't really need to say that he is showing he respects him, because he just said as much.)

"I suppose that's true. Fine, I'll go with you. I shouldn't have disobeyed you. I was missing my friends and family more than anything," Gohan relented as he hovered up slowly, ready to leave.

"If it'll help you focus I'll have your mother come to the Lookout too and I'll have Kami contact Krillin," Piccolo grunted, hoping to cheer the boy up so his obedience would be continued.

"Thank you, Mr. Piccolo, I can't wait! I'm sure Krillin will have started his training by now and is having a great time." Gohan smiled for the first time in days, taking off quickly towards the Lookout, all the while appreciating Piccolo dealing with Kami for him, as the feelings the two Namekians were well known - they despised each other.

"Where the hell is he?!" Krillin cried out as he roamed the planet of the East Kai, Chaiotzu close behind him.

"She is here," shouted a blood curdling and shrill voice.

Turning around they saw a diminutive figure wearing red '_Jackie Ohh'_ sunglasses, dark patterned robes and had light lilac coloured skin with blonde hair. (The East Kai seems to me to have light green skin)

"You're a Kai?!" Krillin asked incredulously, trying not to laugh. (I don't think Krillin would be that disrespectful…)

"Krillin! We are here for the Kai's help, show some respect!" Chaoitzu shouted, worried that the East Kai would refuse to aid them - or worse retaliate.

"Oh, right, yeah, sorry," Krillin mumbled, realising he'd messed up. (stating the obvious)

"Not good enough," the East Kai growled menacingly, her eyes flashing blue.

With that, the two warriors felt an immense pressure on them and collapsed to the ground, barely able to move.

"What gives?" Krillin wheezed out as he struggled to move.

"I just turned the gravity back to its original intensity. Five times that of Earth. If you can complete a lap of the planet in 10 minutes I'll train you both," the East Kai explained with a sneer, enjoying her vengeance.

"My power level is 565, yours is 540; we're over a hundred times stronger than the average human, by rights we should be handling this easily," Krillin stated as he turned to Chaiotzu, still only on one knee.

"We aren't used to it, our balance is out," Chaiotzu replied as he powered up fully and got back on his feet.

"Eight minutes left," East Kai called out as she began heading to her home, which was smaller than her hangar-like garage.

"Shit, let's go!" Krillin shouted as he pushed his ki to the maximum and started to semi-jog along the small planet.

"3, 2, 1...oh, you made it," East Kai scowled as the two Z fighters collapsed in front of her, totally exhausted.

"Your training begins now. Five more laps, then sparring, followed by one-on-one tuition," the East Kai ordered with a smirk as the two Z fighters trudged off in an agonised manner.

"Tien and Yamcha had better be getting flogged like we are," Krillin growled as he struggled on, his lungs burning.

"You sadistic freak!" Yamcha barked as he was punched back into the energy barrier surrounding the Planet's perimeter.

He was in a bad state, his hair was matted, his gi torn in numerous places and he was plastered in bruises. To top it all off, he was wearing weighted gear in five times gravity, he was close to breaking.

"Don't push him," Tien growled as he did his two hundredth push up with the West Kai and his car on his back.

A small purple Kai with a monocle and helmet with a single point, that eerily resembled a WW2 nazi helmet, was sat in a dark green Chevrolet, lazily punching Yamcha whenever he got in range.

"I can't start imparting my knowledge until you idiots boost your power to a thousand," the West Kai explained sadistically.

"But Tien's only just over six hundred and I'm 567!" Yamcha moaned as he rushed in again at the Kai.

"Then, you better work harder," the West Kai replied icily as he sent a kiai at Yamcha, knocking him back.

"This place is awesome!" Yajirobe said as he made a yellow ki barrier while eating a sandwich.

"I aim to please," South Kai chuckled as he fired a series of yellow ki blasts at the barrier. The beams bounced off or were absorbed, then another sandwich materialised in front of Yajirrobe.

South Kai was a tall humanoid with nearly pink skin and rather large lips, he wore dark and blue robes as well as a jolly smile and a pair of red rimmed sunglasses. "Well done! With the right motivation you've perfected the Kai barrier technique!" South Kai grinned.

"Awesome, what's next?" Yajirrobe asked, eager to earn more food.

"Weight training followed by sparring with one of my other fighters and then a feast," South Kai replied cheerily as he materialised four 500kg weights that attached to limbs.

"Hmm, not too happy with that, but ok. I wonder how Goku's doing?" Yajirrobe said as he walked to the weights.

"I caught the monkey, King Kai," Goku wheezed as he collapsed under the pressure of the ten times gravity.

"Excellent work, Goku! Now you must hit Gregory the cricket," King Kai ordered, pointing to a mallet.

"Oh, for goodness sake!" Goku groaned as he pushed himself up.

_'If I do it fast enough, maybe he'll bring Raditz up here. The others think it's important I see him and gauge if he deserves wishing back,'_ Goku thought as he jogged on holding a rubber mallet, the conversation he last had with Kami playing on his mind.

"I'm going to bloody murder you if you don't tell me where my parents and fiancé are!" Raditz bellowed in the face of a guard ogre he'd stumbled upon by a fountain of blood.

"The main body of inmates are past the fountain, but I swear there's no record of them down here!" The ogre whimpered, going rather pale.

"Why not? Surely there's nowhere worse than here to send them?" Raditz demanded powering a ki blast in his left palm subconsciously.

"No, you misunderstand. They are higher up in the first level of heaven," the ogre clarified quickly in the fear that Raditz would fry him.

"How is that even possible? They were Saiyans, we were a brutal race," Raditz asked in a shocked tone.

"Well, your mother was a non-fighting engineer and a good mother, so she did nothing wrong. Your father may have slaughtered millions but he did try to save your race and indeed had other acts of valour which outweighed his crimes, (perhaps reword it, nothing really outweighs the slaughter of millions of innocents!) and as for Ahiru, she was a medic and saved lives," the ogre hurriedly informed Raditz.

"Don't say her name again," Raditz growled as he released the Ogre. "Is there a way up there?"

"One. you can go to the Kai and plead for a transferral, there is technically no way to get to them but in two months' time a barrier will open under Death Mountain, through it is a month's flight to the North Kai's planet," the ogre blurted out hurriedly.

"Excellent, Kakarrot may be up there too... Two birds, one stone. Leave now or I will kill you," Raditz muttered to the Ogre, only to find he'd run away already.

_'Two months to train and then it's showtime,'_ Raditz thought grimly as he began dead lifting boulders.

"I'm coming for you, Brother!" Raditz yelled as he charged his ki causing himself to be obscured from view by an artificial sandstorm.

Dear loyal readers,

I am incredibly sorry for the total lack of updates, I have had exams and have also had personal issues. Still this is no excuse, now I'm back there will be an update every few weeks at the latest. The next chapter should be ready in two-three weeks! Once again a massive thank you to my editor Apollo 1147 who is eternally patient and wise.


	5. Bandit's Redemption

The true training commenced for the Z fighters and for three months they underwent a strict routine training regimen.

For Tien and Yamcha, however, the routine had been broken for the past week.

"This is impossible," Yamcha growled to the West Kai as he emerged from a white training room, bloodied and dishevelled.

"Tien did it earlier," West Kai replied, not bothering to look up from his car magazine.

"Yeah, but, Tien's power level is 350 above mine and my opponent is stronger," Yamcha pointed out.

"It's your own fault. You're weaker than Tien and your opponent is only one hundred points stronger," West Kai replied with a glare.

"Get in there," Tien growled, he had come to view Yamcha as useless and pathetic.

"Fine!" Yamcha shouted angrily as he stalked back in.

"Come back for more?" sneered Shorty, a Saiyan from the past West Kai had drafted from hell.

"Shut up and fight," Yamcha snarled in response, slipping into the classic Turtle school defensive stance.

"Whatever you say," Shorty smirked as he vanished from view.

"The hell?!" Yamcha yelled as he whirled around.

"Boo," Shorty said behind Yamcha's back.

Sweeping his left leg sideways, Yamcha attempted to sweep the legs of Shorty out from under him. His leg swept through thin air as he turned, only to see Shorty hovering a foot off the ground with a sadistic smile and a white ki ball in his right hand directly in front of Yamcha's face.

"Oh, shi-" Yamcha started before the ball collided with his face and sent him hurtling back.

Getting up slowly with burn marks on his face, Yamcha charged at Shorty.

Shorty met his charge head on and received a left hook to the ribs followed by a chin-jarring uppercut. Yamcha increased the ki in his fists to exert pressure on the impact areas and flipped back to assess the damage.

Slowly shaking his head Shorty began to laugh outrageously. "Well done, I actually felt that, like you'd feel a high five but still it's an improvement," Shorty gasped as his laughter subsided.

"I'll show you improvement!" Yamcha shouted angrily as he sped towards Shorty.

Yamcha opened with a pathetically weak ki blast, which on impact let off smoke that obscured him from view.

Taking advantage of this he unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks at Shorty's sides which pushed him back and brought a grimace to his face.

Realising he'd have to try to win; the Saiyan began blocking the blows with disheartening efficiency. Yamcha, seeing this, kicked for the alien's head and, as expected, felt him grab his ankle. Taking advantage, he flipped up and twisted so his arms were in line with Shorty's neck and with one arm grasped his right arm and with the other added all his ki to the force of the punch he threw to Shorty's neck.

The power was amazing in that blow, considering Yamcha's recent efforts, and the effect was impressive. Shorty was launched backwards, gasping for air into the opposite wall, leaving deep cracks in the reinforced material.

Getting up slowly and gagging harshly, Shorty's power level rose to roughly 3500, nearly a thousand more than Yamcha's.

Cracking his neck slowly, Shorty raised his head and his dark, malice filled eyes locked with Yamcha's.

"I will kill you for that!" Shorty roared as he sped into Yamcha before he could react.

Limbs blurring, Shorty pummelled the sides and stomach of the ex-desert bandit, making him gasp and double over. The undead warrior then kicked him in the ribs, booting him away.

"I think I just broke a few of your ribs," Shorty laughed, his smile returning.

'Damn, gotta get back into this fight or I'm dead,' Yamcha growled internally as he got up and switched to his unique wolf-style stance.

"Spirit ball!" Yamcha shouted as he formed a volleyball sized ki orb above his outstretched palm and launched it at Shorty.

As it reached Shorty's hands and he was stuck in place, Yamcha dashed behind him to strike.

"Wolf Fang Fist!" Yamcha bellowed as he started to unleash his trademark move in a frenzy of punches.

After the first blow Shorty was staggered and it almost caused him to lose his grip on the Spirit Ball, it dawned on him that he needed to defeat Yamcha quickly. Uncoiling his tail from his waist he used it to smack Yamcha across the face and away from him. Yamcha was unprepared and was sent skidding along the ground. Using this chance, Shorty threw the Spirit Ball into the ceiling and turned, panting slightly, to the bandit.

"That nearly worked, I'm impressed human scum can fight to that level." Shorty said.

"I'll show you what a human is capable of." Yamcha growled, rushing towards Shorty.

Fatigue and anger had made Yamcha sloppy and his movements were essentially signposted. Every strike the Z fighter made was dodged or blocked. Seeing this, Yamcha decided to fight closer in and unleashed volleys of kicks and punches which were all countered. After one particularly wild Wolf Fang Fist missed, Shorty smashed him in the gut with his right knee and ki blasted him away.

Undeterred by this or Shorty's laughter, Yamcha went in on the attack again, his kick being dodged by a side step.

"Too slow, weakling," Shorty grinned as he moved.

Yamcha swung for Shorty's head with all the speed he could muster only to hit air as Shorty lazily cocked his head away.

"I'm sorry was that for me?" Shorty mocked as he punched Yamcha in the face, breaking a tooth.

"I'll kill you!" Yamcha screamed as he tried a sweeping kick.

Shorty dodged instantly but as he was jumping Yamcha began to charge a Turtle school attack of legend.

"Kame..hame...ha!" Yamcha shouted as he formed and fired the classic energy attack which, unlike with most users, was yellow.

It bridged the new divide between Yamcha and Shorty in a millisecond and engulfed the Saiyan completely. As the blast dissipated Yamcha sensed for Shorty's energy.

"Oh, for Kami's sake! The fuck do I have to do to kill this guy?!" Yamcha thundered as he sensed the Saiyan was weakened significantly - but alive.

"My turn, Bitch," Shorty snarled as he emerged from the smoke, now enraged and covered in burns.

Shorty rapidly formed crimson energy inbetween his fingers which seared towards Yamcha and combined into a single beam which he struggled to hold back. Yamcha couldn't even speak due to the strain of holding the blast back.

"You can't hold my Pumpkin Piercer forever, you're too useless for that," Shorty cackled.

Yamcha only heard the word 'useless.' All the times he'd been called it echoed through his mind. He realised, deep down he had begun to believe the insult... But not anymore. His rage gave him a focus and drive he'd lacked before.

Golden and sparking energy began to crackle around Yamcha as he called upon the power of the West Kai's greatest technique.

"Soul Burst!" Yamcha screamed as his aura exploded and he became surrounded with a golden glow.

The technique was incredibly dangerous and hard to learn. It multiplied a person's power level, the highest application to date was about x10 but for people with a power level less than ten thousand, only the basic level could be used at x2 boost. It was dangerous however, as it didn't boost a person's base ki, it augments and unleashes part of a fighter's life ki. This, unfortunately, means its duration is very limited and causes immense fatigue after. Tien nor Yamcha had been able to access the move for more than a second until now.

Yamcha walked through Shorty's beam like it wasn't even there and proceeded to advance on the Saiyan, who in panic fired numerous ki blasts which didn't even make the hero flinch. Yamcha then sped up and grabbed Shorty by the throat, squeezing viciously.

"How does it feel to be useless, Bitch?" Yamcha taunted as he dropped the Saiyan and threw a Wolf Fang Fist.

The attack was too fast for Shorty to react to, and it struck his neck, snapping it in half.

Smiling to himself yet exhausted from the Soul Burst, Yamcha strode to the exit and walked up to a dozing West Kai and a training Tien.

"You look rough as hell! Did you lose again?" Tien asked, genuinely concerned.

"Hold on Tien, wake up you lazy, purple lard ball!" Yamcha bellowed at West Kai.

Waking up with a fright, the West Kai was rather pissed.

"Why did you do that?!" He demanded maliciously.

"Better yet, why did you give me an opponent with a power level 650 bigger than the one Tien fought?!" Yamcha demanded harshly.

"Wait what? He must have been hiding his true power...how are you alive?" West Kai asked incredulously.

"Soul Burst gave me the strength to kill him," Yamcha replied casually, enjoying the look on Tien's face.

"I honestly thought Tien would get it first... Good work Yamcha, take the afternoon off," West Kai praised as he walked off to think.

_'He has potential greater than I realised, it's on par with Tien's those two may yet become the strongest ever humans,'_ West Kai mused as he took off towards the Grand Kai's planet to check on his other fighters.

"Well done, Yamcha, I'm proud of you man. I've been an ass to you for months now in the hope it'd keep you focused... It was a pretty awful tactic and I'm sorry," Tien apologised, feeling bad for the months of abuse.

"It's fine, I actually needed the motivation. We've got a month left before we head back to Earth, let's make the most of it," Yamcha replied with a grin as he powered up to show Tien how to do the Soul Burst.

"It's taken bloody months but I can finally see that friggin' planet!" Raditz growled in celebration as King Kai's planet came into view.

_'It's time for some brotherly bonding,'_ Raditz thought bitterly as he rocketed towards the planet.

"Goku, a high power level is about to arrive. Get ready to kick some ass," King Kai warned his pupil, who promptly stopped training and turned to the ki signature.

Seconds later, Raditz descended like a comet, aura blazing and obscuring him from view.

"Brother, long time no see," Raditz called out in faux friendliness.

"Raditz, what do you want?" Goku asked calmly, relaxing his body slightly after realising the power gap between them.

"Well, I'd love nothing more than to beat you senseless for killing me, but I, unfortunately, need your help," Raditz spat out, each word seemingly causing him physical pain..

"Why should I help you? You got me killed," Goku asked peevishly as he folded his arms.

"Yes, I did...if I'd known that I would require your assistance I wouldn't have done it," Raditz sneered, trying to hide his regret.

"Not good enough, Raditz, leave or I'll make you." Goku warned, his eyes flashing with a cold and rare light.

"I didn't come here to fight... I can't go back to hell, Kakarott... I need to be revived," Raditz replied gruffly.

"Oh, so you kill millions and when you're punished for it you can't handle it... I thought Saiyans were prideful, not pathetic," Goku retorted, outraged at his brother's audacity.

"Please, Brother, I only want a chance to make amends in some way... I need to kill Vegeta and Nappa," Raditz stated with an eerie composure.

"Why, to get revenge?" Goku asked, now mildly interested and less sickened.

"No, to try and balance out the evil I've done...if I help stop those maniacs it'll prevent the death of billions," Raditz replied, somewhat honestly.

"I'm certain you're not telling me why this matters so much to you, tell me everything and I'll consider the options," Goku conceded, he'd studied Raditz's energy closely and knew his desire to change was indeed real, but he knew there was an ulterior motive.

"When I die, again, I want to go to heaven...wait there's more. It's not to improve my lot in the afterlife...it's so I can see my loved ones again," Raditz explained sadly, his head hanging.

"I didn't know you had anyone you cared for," Goku said surprised, Raditz had struck him as heartless in the past.

"We had parents, Brother. Our father vanished and is most likely dead. He was a good man, a warrior under Frieza, yes, but he was just. He cared for us and ultimately opposed Frieza... I want to see him again and make him proud. Our mother, Gine, was the most altruistic person I'd ever met...she adored us, she was a medic and dedicated herself to saving others...she didn't deserve the fate she met," Raditz explained in a half growl, his emotions conflicted.

"Huh...I never thought about our parents before. I'd like to meet them, too... I'll make a deal with you. If you train with me and I think you really can change by the time I get revived, I'll bring you with me," Goku decided, sensing that Raditz was truly trying to redeem himself, he wasn't evil just confused, angry and until recently, controlled.

"Thank you, Kakarott," Raditz said honestly as he walked over to his brother to shake his hand.

"There are two conditions, though," Goku added before he sealed the deal.

"Name them," Raditz replied too relieved to care.

"Firstly: I want there to be no secrets between us, at least not by the time we leave. Secondly: call me Goku, I prefer it," Goku stated waiting for a response.

"I agree, Kak.. ," Raditz replied as he shook his brother's hand.

"Now, I have to go convince King Kai to let you stay," Goku sighed whilst walking over to his tutor.

Loud and, at times, violent arguing erupted for over an hour between King Kai and Goku before a reluctant and resentful concession was made.

"You can stay. One wrong move and I'll blast your ass back to hell myself," King Kai glared at Raditz, eyes filled with anger.

"Thank you. What first, Brother?" Raditz asked turning to Goku only to find a fist surging towards his gut.

The blow sent Raditz doubled over and flying until he hit an asteroid.

"That was for kidnapping my son!" Goku shouted without malice, his vengeance appeased.

"You're more like a Saiyan than I thought," Raditz wheezed as he staggered back, coughing blood.

The training continued and before the Z fighter knew it they were facing the uncertainty of returning to Earth. Though the training had gone well they were all united in their fear that it wouldn't be enough, the Saiyans had caused chaos on the way to Earth and King Kai had informed them that vegeta was only growing stronger.

"Well, Kami, we're here," Krillin shouted as he stood next to the check in station exit.

"No need to shout, my boy, Yemma will hear you," Kami replied as he materialised in front of Krillin and Chaoitzu.

"How long do we have left until the Saiyans arrive?" Chaiotzu asked, having lost track of time.

"Just under two months, I'm afraid," Kami sighed sadly.

"Well, that's still plenty of time and we're both three times as strong as Raditz now," Krillin smiled falsely.

_'We may not be enough,'_ he thought though.

"Yes, now, let's get you two back to the Lookout," Kami said as he grabbed them both and teleported them back.

They arrived to see a crowd of their friends waiting to greet them, except Gohan. Chaoitzu's girlfriend was even there.

"Liang!" Chaoitzu shouted as he flew straight to her, embracing her lovingly.

_'Huh, guess Chaoitzu isn't gay after all. Man, is she a surprise,'_ Krillin mused, genuinely surprised.

Liang was not what he expected; to be honest he expected a guy actually named Chuck. She was incredibly different to Chaoitzu, average height, long brown hair, deeply tanned and rather attractive.

_'Even he has someone to fight for,'_ Krillin inwardly sighed before he was greeted by Bulma and Roshi.

"Hey guys, what's new?" He asked as cheerily as he could manage.

"Not much, Krillin. Gohan and Piccolo's training has been incredibly productive - their power levels are around 3500 already," Roshi replied; keen to share the good news.

_'Shit...I'm stronger than that; I'd hoped Gohan would be our secret weapon,_' Krillin inwardly panicked, remaining outwardly excited.

"That's great! Hows your training gone?" Krillin asked Roshi, Bulma was hanging back looking oddly morose.

"Pretty good, thanks, I'm around 1300 at MAX power," Roshi replied with a grin.

"Wow, that's an impressive increase," Krillin congratulated, surprised at his old Master's dedication.

"Hi Krillin, you heard from Goku?" Bulma asked immediately.

_'Weird thought she'd ask about Yamcha first,'_ Krillin thought.

"Yeah, a few months ago. He's okay, training hard and missing Chi-Chi and Gohan," Krillin informed her.

"Good. Chi-Chi's been a shadow of her former self...blames herself for his death," Bulma replied quietly so only Krillin heard.

"Why?!" Krillin asked, shocked to say the least.

_'Ahh, Yajjirobe's back,'_ Krillin noticed, having seen him arrive out the corner of his eye.

"She and Goku had been having difficulties, mostly over money and Gohan. Chi-Chi thought it was about time they dipped into Goku's tournament winnings but he insisted they were kept untouched so they could buy Gohan and his future family a home. Chi-Chi argued they were struggling now and the money could be saved again but Goku wouldn't budge saying he'd enter another tournament and win fast cash. Chi-Chi still wasn't happy as it wasn't guaranteed to work," Bulma explained quietly.

"Wow, and I thought they had the perfect relationship," Krillin remarked, disturbed by the news.

"Then there was the issue of Gohan' s education. Goku wanted him to go into school so he'd have a normal childhood that he was deprived of, but he also wanted him to train more. Chi-Chi felt Gohan would do better being home taught, but the hours she was making him do were insane and left no time to train... So they had blazing rows, which led to Goku taking Gohan away for a few days, his kidnapping and Goku's death in the rescue attempt," Bulma finished sadly.

"That's Goku for you, sweet to the core, Chi-Chi shouldn't blame herself though. I always thought they'd have problems. I mean, she basically forced him into marriage." Krillin replied as he walked over to freshly arrived Tien and Launch.

"Hi, Yamcha," Bulma greeted as she walked up to her on/off boyfriend.

"Hi, I've missed you," Yamcha said as he hugged her fiercely.

"I've...missed you too," Bulma replied dishonestly, she'd missed the companionship, but the time apart made her realise how bad their relationship was, largely due to Yamcha's dependency and jealousy.

"Well, guys, we're all here, so let's see how we've done," Krillin called out as he fired up his scouter.

"I'm 3700 and Chaoitzu is 3465. We scanned ourselves earlier, Yajjirobe you are...wow 3200! Nice one, buddy!" Krillin congratulated his friend who nodded smugly.

"Yamcha you're...3650! Very impressive and Tien your... 3800!" Krillin exclaimed, surprised Tien was still stronger.

"Right, we are having a week off training and then we swap techniques." Krillin informed the assembled warriors.

Seven weeks passed with the Z fighters teaching each other new techniques, including Gohan and Piccolo with limited success. Having prepared as much as possible, they decided to wish Goku back with two days left before the Saiyans arrive.

"Well, it's a good job Shenron can bring multiple people back; Goku's bringing his brother back," Krillin informed Yamcha, his companion on the dragon ball hunt.

"Great, with that and Bulma leaving me, things can't get worse," Yamcha complained.

"Sorry buddy, you'll find someone else soon," Krillin consoled his old friend.

_'I'm not surprised really; you always clung to her and accused her of cheating... Plus it's clear to most how much she adores Goku... Kami that could get messy,'_ Krillin inwardly reacted to the pity.

"Yeah, maybe...let's go home," Yamcha said as he soared off.

As the sun set on the short autumn day, the warriors were grim and withdrawn, knowing they'd only have a day before the dreaded Saiyans arrive. Despite the incredible increases in power they'd all achieved, they were painfully aware some of them wouldn't return from battle. However, each one of them was determined to meet the threat head on. They had people depending on them and that steeled their nerves. The battle for Earth was about to begin.


	6. Pride and Purgatory

The fateful day of the Saiyan arrival came far too soon for the Z fighter's liking as they assembled in the pre-determined valley. All the Z fighters aside from Roshi were there; it'd been decided that someone had to guard Kami. Each warrior was filled secretly with dread as they paced or laughed to keep their nerves steady. Most were confident that Goku would be their saviour when he arrived, until Krillin told them some bad news.

"What do you mean Goku and Raditz are four hours away?!" Piccolo roared at a now rather angry Krillin, who'd suffered several dismayed outbursts already.

"They went down Snake Way as King Kai couldn't teleport them back. We, surely, can hold them off for that long," Krillin replied evenly but with a dangerous glint in his eyes, he could beat Piccolo now and the Namekian knew it. His divine techniques more than made up for the mild power deficit he had to the former villain.

Realising he couldn't push it too far, Piccolo grunted in response and stalked back to Gohan glaring at everyone as he did so.

Despite the bad news they all looked grimly determined, but none more than Gohan who was wearing a dark purple gi similar to Piccolo's with red wristbands and belt finished with a white headband and scarf with a demon kanji on the back. He looked murderous...revenge had been on his mind for a year and he was going to get it. This change in demeanour had worried all but Piccolo who had deduced it was due to his age and Saiyan nature. After all, he'd heard Goku had been even more vicious than before his amnesia.

Time seemed to slow, minutes felt like days to the defenders of Earth and it was becoming apparent to Krillin that panic would kick in if something didn't happen soon. Anticipation was often worse than the action itself. Luckily, the Z fighter's didn't have to wait much longer for their foes to arrive, after ten minutes, two pods hurtled into the earth mere yards from them. The Saiyans had obviously zeroed in on the gathered Ki signatures.

Emerging from the pods which were hissing smoke were the two most mismatched silhouettes ever seen by the heroes. The one on the left was gigantically hulking, taller than Raditz and more muscular than Tien, wearing odd armour coloured yellow and dark blue with jutting shoulder pads. The one on the right was far shorter, around 5 foot with an odd peak of hair that went over six inches high. Despite this height deficit he seemed to be all compact muscle and you could tell by how he walked he was in charge; he radiated arrogant confidence and strength.

As the smoke began to clear and the two Saiyan's came more into view the shorter one spoke.

"If you're the best this planet has, this will be all too easy," he sneered, as he sized up Earth's Special Forces.

"Yeah, we need an easy fight Vegeta, you nearly became a prison bitch on Arlia," the tall Saiyan added dopily with nudge.

"God damn it, Nappa! I was trying to intimidate them," Vegeta snapped back, in response he got a sheepish grin.

"Let's see their power levels...ha! They're all between 1,200 and 1,700," Nappa smirked after scanning the Z fighters.

_'Good, they can't sense energy - we have surprise on our side,'_ Piccolo inwardly sighed in relief.

"No, they're stronger than that... They'd be more fearful otherwise," Vegeta mused as he noticed the impassive faces of the Z fighters; normally merely his presence inspired terror, this lack of reaction annoyed and concerned him.

_'Well, there goes the element of surprise...'_ Piccolo groaned to himself.

"Shall I plant the six last Saibamen?" Nappa asked Vegeta eagerly as he pulled six, little, green pods out of his pockets and throwing them to the ground.

"Yeah, you rabble can fight them one on one aside from the half breed," Vegeta ordered lazily as Nappa threw water on the ground from a small canteen.

"Call me 'half breed' again and I'll kill you," Gohan growled savagely. He despised his Saiyan heritage - he realised it was starting to change him and he was barely holding on to his humanity.

"Oh, you definitely have a strong Saiyan side boy; I may yet have use for you," Vegeta chuckled darkly as began to reappraise Gohan's potential.

"Over my dead body," Piccolo barked at Vegeta, after months of training Gohan and watching his struggles he'd grown to care for him, a new concept to the alien.

"Oh, I can manage that Namek, believe me," Vegeta replied coldly, his eyes narrowed in fury.

"Piccolo, we have more immediate concerns," Tien said pointing to the newly grown Saibamen fighters.

They were grotesque green creatures, with red eyes and dark green bodies and lighter shaded, bulbous heads. Rather than hands they had razor sharp claws, the worst thing though was their shrieking, which caused Piccolo great anguish.

Scanning the creatures with his concealed scouter, Yajjirobe discovered they only had a power level of 1,200 and grinned.

"I'll take em' all on," Yajjirobe confidently shouted, stepping forward briskly.

"You sure, man?" Yamcha asked, concerned and startled at his friend's sudden bravery: Yajjirobe was not known for heroism.

"Yep, they ain't so tough," was the gruff reply.

"Fine, two of you go for him," Vegeta called out casually, expecting a very brief but highly amusing bloodbath.

There was a bloodbath but it was not what he expected. As the two creatures leapt at Yajjirobe from the front and back he whipped out his sword and spun, decapitating both Saibamen, green blood splattering the ground, the heads rolling slowly.

"Impressive…all of you attack, now!" Vegeta barked, worried at the potential the fat guy posed, if he was anything to go by the humans would be far more dangerous than he'd assumed.

As the Saibamen came at Yajjirobe he powered up and blocked their first flurry of punches and kicks only to start getting hit frequently. (you can word this better, something more like… At first Yajirobe blocked their flurry of kicks and vicious clawing effortlessly, but as he started to tire the green aliens started landing more of their attacks. )

"Screw this, Samurai Shield!" Yajjirobe yelled as a silver energy barrier enveloped him, creating a sphere of crackling and damaging energy.

One of Saibamen got caught in the sphere and died instantly, causing the others to back off instantly.

"Self-destruct!" Vegeta ordered in rage-filled disgust.

The remaining Saibamen pounced on the energy shield and detonated before the Z fighters could react. The explosion was immense and sent shockwaves out that levelled the surrounding area. When the dust cleared Yajjirobe was still standing.

"Killed 'em all...night, guys," Yajjirobe muttered before he promptly collapsed in a heap from the strain.

"Shit!" Krillin shouted before he surged towards his friend only for Nappa to intercept and barge in front of him.

"No heroics today, Shrimp, give us the dragon balls or I'll kill one of you," Nappa growled menacingly.

"Try it! Expeditor!" Chaoitzu roared as he became blur, his enhanced kick smashed into Nappa's side cracking his armour, giving Krillin a chance to scoop up Yajjirobe.

"Ahh! That actually hurt! Vegeta, what's his power?" Nappa called out, slowly getting up with a grimace, unused to actually being in pain.

"3,500!" Vegeta bellowed in shock as realised how strong the fighters were.

"Nappa, kill the dwarf quickly! We need to get them all out fast!" Vegeta ordered as he rounded quickly on the others. All pretences of amusement gone, he'd regained his focus and went into his mission mind-set.

Nappa whirled towards Chaoitzu with a flying kick only to hit thin air. Chaoitzu countered by using the Expeditor technique again and smashing the back of Nappa's head with several punches and kicks. The force made Nappa stumble forwards, and taking advantage of this the psychic prince used his telekinesis to rip a cliff a deep cliff longer than a football field apart and dumped it on Nappa who was buried with a deafening crash.

Meanwhile, Krillin had grabbed Yajjirobe and was taking him back to the Lookout for treatment, the others were warily keeping Vegeta backwards by erecting an energy field he couldn't quite break, though it was faltering in places.

"How is he alive?!" Chaoitzu squeaked in outrage having felt Nappa's weakened but enraged ki energy.

An instant later an immense radius blast vaporised the rubble and hit Chaoitzu heavily, sending him crumpled and bloodied to the ground.

"Finish him, Nappa!" Vegeta yelled as he pummelled the barrier with increased fury, causing cracks to appear.

"Ok!" Nappa roared in response as he fired a yellow mouth beam at Chaoitzu's position.

The beam detonated on contact with the rubble and when the smoke cleared only dust and a crater remained

"Did I get the imp?" Nappa asked more to himself then anything.

"Nope! Soul Ray!" Chaiotzu raged behind Nappa, as he combined the Soul Burst technique and the Dodon Ray.

His aura blazed dark gold and the usually yellow blast took on a red hue as it bored into Nappa who barely managed to turn to face it in time.

_'Too injured for this...strain's too much. Well, too late to back out now, if I'm going out I'm doing it with a bang,_' Chaoitzu resolved as he poured his remaining life force energy into the beam.

Screaming from the strain, he hovered shakily as Nappa was obscured from view due to beam, his roars of pain being audible despite the explosion.

As the blast dissipated Chaoitzu saw Nappa on one knee, his armour gone, his right bleeding heavily and his entire body burnt horribly. The thing that made Chaiotzu grin grimly as he collapsed to the ground his life ebbing away was that Nappa's moustache was burnt off.

"You shit! My moustache is gone!" Nappa yelled as he prepared a fairly strong blast with his right arm to incinerate the dying warrior.

As he threw it Gohan rushed in to try and deflect it, instead he merely got blasted aside like he was nothing.

"It's too late, Gohan, he's dead," Tien stated far too calmly, as he stopped adding to the energy shield around Vegeta. He had felt his best friend's energy vanish.

"And, so is the kid!" Nappa bellowed as he launched multiple energy blasts at the disoriented Gohan.

Seeing Gohan in trouble Piccolo also abandoned the energy shield and rushed in, taking the blasts for Gohan, eventually collapsing to the ground.

"Piccolo, will you be ok?" Gohan asked as his angry determination returned at the sight of his mentor's injury.

"Regeneration will get me back up soon, help the others hold off Vegeta, something tells me Tien's got this," Piccolo lied as he got up slowly, from the strain of restraining Vegeta with the shield and the new internal wounds, he sensed he was close to death.

'_Even if I die, saving Gohan was worth it. He is after all my only friend,_' Piccolo reasoned and admitted to himself.

"Right," Gohan said as he leapt into the fray against Vegeta which was going terribly, Yamcha had just been blasted into a hill and was slow in emerging.

"Nappa, we need to transform, we're being overrun," Vegeta grunted as Gohan kicked him in the ribs knocking him back.

"Ok," Nappa said as he formed a glowing orb of light blue energy above him while Tien calmly strode towards him.

"You are going to die," Tien told Nappa, it wasn't a threat; it was coming from Tien chillingly like a proven fact.

"We'll see human," Nappa smirked as he began to grow fur and bulk up immensely, his height rose to thirty foot and his face became freely simian and he had become the feared Oozaru.

'_Yajjirobe is dying, Chaiotzu's dead and now these insanely powerful; monsters can transform…its like being in hell. Except from what I've heard this is worse, purgatory seems more fitting_.' Krillin thought grimly as he got back into the fight with Vegeta, having been blasted away.

"Tremble before my might," Nappa commanded as he raised his power to 28000 his maximum in his weakened state.

"I'm not impressed," Tien stated, his eyes glinting as his aura flared dark red and gold.

"Soul Shield times five," he barked multiplying his power to roughly seven times his base, successfully combining his two nearly mastered techniques.

Nappa lunged at Tien with his giant fist but hit thin air, whirling around he fired eye beams at the bald warrior only to find him above him.

"Too slow," Tien taunted as he lazily smashed Nappa in the jaw with a spin-kick, he wasn't even trying anymore.

Tien continued toying with Nappa, dodging his every attack and responding with painful but fight prolonging blows. The fatigue of the techniques, however, began to affect Tien and he slowed without realising. Eventually Nappa managed to swat him down with a stunning blow that brought him out of his powered state.

_'Oh shit, I'm done...I've failed you my friend,'_ Tien thought sadly as struggled to get up as Nappa's strongest beam surged at him.

Death never came as the blast never reached him, Piccolo after being further injured by a murderous Vegeta realised Tien was Gohan's best bet of getting out of the battle alive and thus decided to save him.

Collapsing to the floor, apparently dying, Piccolo weakly looked up at a shocked and shakily standing Tien.

"Why?" Tien choked out, numbed by the surprising act of heroism, they had, after all, hated one another.

"You have the best chance of keeping Gohan alive, kill this bastard for me," Piccolo grunted simply before the light faded from his eyes.

"I will," Tien vowed as he turned back to an exhausted and blood soaked Ozaru Nappa.

"You're dying now. I should have killed you earlier; instead I toyed with you to make sure you suffered. Not making that mistake again," Tien thundered, as he used the Expeditor technique to bring himself behind Nappa.

As Nappa desperately tried to turn as he realised his vulnerability, Tien attacked and severed his tail with a razor-thin ki blast.

Nappa shrieked in pain as he agonisingly reverted to his normal state, his body on the verge of shutting down, yet he somehow still remained on his feet.

Tien felt Nappa's fluctuating power level and upon realising his utter weakness beamed sadistically.

"It's over," Tien grinned as he marched over slowly to Nappa.

"I can still take you," Nappa bellowed in defiance as he rushed Tien.

With a single kick to the throat from Tien, Nappa collapsed, crumpled in a paralysed heap gagging for air.

Kicking Nappa viciously into a mountain of rubble, Tien turned back to Vegeta's fight which had paused due to Vegeta and the Z fighters shock at Nappa's defeat.

"How is this possible?" Vegeta bellowed in rage and complete disbelief; he'd never seen Nappa lose a fight in Ozaru form, not even to Recoome of the Ginyu Force and yet a human of all creatures had surely killed him.

"With humanity anything is possible, welcome to Earth," Tien replied as he hurtled toward Vegeta, his fist raised.

Well the battle with Nappa is finally over; will the Z fighters fare better against Vegeta? Also why hasn't Gohan shown his potential yet? And where are Goku and Raditz? Find out in the next exciting chapter of DBZ HoH! Once again a big thank you to my editor Apollo 1471 and also to Simgr101who gave me some truly helpful guidance on this chapter and the general direction of this story in the future.


	7. Royal Revolt

"Wait," Vegeta commanded, lowering his ki and defences.

Stopping his strike, Tien stepped back from the alien prince, poised to strike at any sign of trickery.

"Surrendering, are we?" Tien barked in query, as his friends looked on in confusion.

"No, this fight is far from over. I will to attend to my comrade's body," Vegeta replied gruffly, his usual air of superiority gone as he was stunningly shocked that the Earthlings had defeatedNappa.

"You have five minutes," Tien snapped quickly, noticing how his friends needed Senzu beans.

Walking slowly to the area of rubble wherein Nappa lay, Vegeta was surprised by a faint beep from his scouter. Nappa was just clinging to life.

Clearing the rubble rapidly, he found Nappa barely conscious and immobile.

"Get up, Nappa," Vegeta ordered harshly as he leaned slowly towards his comrade.

"Vegeta...I can't move my legs...I can't get up," Nappa coughed painfully as he looked up with dulled eyes.

'I'm crippled...how did this happen? Doesn't matter, Vegeta will help me to the pod and he'll take me back to a base for some kind of healing. Won't he?" Nappa asked himself, doubt beginning to creep in.

"Fine, let me help you," Vegeta muttered in an oddly even tone as he reached down towards Nappa's outstretched arm.

'I knew he'd help me, after all the shared missions and time together he couldn't just leave me. He truly is a just Prince,' Nappa thought in relief.

"Thank you, my Prince," Nappa wheezed as Vegeta grabbed his arms and began to pull him up slowly.

"You will thank me in the next life for saving your pride," Vegeta grunted quietly as he heaved and threw Nappa skyward.

"Vegeta, why?" Nappa yelled as he hurtled upwards, disbelief and betrayal racing through his mind.

"Because, you failed me and our race by letting yourself get crippled by the hands of these pathetic lower lifeforms. You didn't even lose honourably by dying in single combat! This will is a true soldier's death," Vegeta bellowed in reply as Nappa began to plummet down.

Flaring his aura and charging ki in both hands, Vegeta began to laugh sadistically as he realised in a few seconds the bane of his life would be his purple energy attack it streamed towards Nappa and engulfed him. The last thing Nappa said was not a death scream, but a solemn vow to return and get revenge on Vegeta.

When the beam faded, nothing in the area was left but the ash that was Nappa and a slightly smirking Vegeta.

'Honour is restored to the Saiyan race, not that there are many of us left, ' Vegeta realised as his smile shrank into a scowl.

'I am the last remaining pure blood, first class Saiyan. Frieza will suffer for this,' Vegeta thought furiously as an odd emptiness filled him, increasing his desire to gain immortality and kill the being responsible for the extermination of the Saiyans.

He turned, directing this new rage to the Z fighters.

"Bad news, Humans, with him dead, you all went back to the top of my 'to die' list," Vegeta growled as he stalked towards them.

The Z fighters looked on frozen in horror.

"He just murdered his comrade...what monster does that?" gasped Yamcha, growing to instantly despise Vegeta.

"The kind of monster that has a power level of 14,000 and toyed with four of us like we're amateurs," Krillin groaned as he started eating his senzu bean hurriedly.

"We were holding back though, none of used all our new techniques...or the Witch's Mirage," Gohan said, trying to reassure himself, fear beginning to gnaw at the back of his mind.

"I doubt it's enough, I've a feeling he's got an ace up his sleeve. We need Goku, any suggestions on how to survive an hour against him?" Tien replied wearily as he rolled his shoulders in preparation.

"Beg for a time out," Yamcha quipped nervously.

"Not a bad idea..." Krillin muttered as he strode towards Vegeta briskly.

"So, you're taking the pathetic way out." Vegeta observed as Krillin stopped a few feet away from him.

"I'm not surrendering," Krillin replied in an incredibly high pitched tone, fear kicking in.

"I know, you clearly wish to fight me alone," Vegeta called back, arms crossed nonchalantly.

"Then, how is that the pathetic way out?" Krillin asked in annoyance, momentarily forgetting his panic and terror.

"Suicide is the coward's option to my people," Vegeta replied casually.

"Ok...so before you kill me, I want to ask you a question," Krillin stammered, barely getting the words out.

"One question, as your fear amuses me, I'll allow it," Vegeta replied dismissively.

"Ok, would you accept the following bet? If I can hold you off alone for 15 minutes my friends and I then get a two and a half hour recovery break," Krillin asked, nervous sweat making his head glisten.

"Well human, it's very brave of you. I admire that in lesser creatures. If you can hold me off for that time you're friends get a two hour break," Vegeta agreed, smiling at the thought of what he'd do to the human.

'That should leave us with half an hour to hold out if I manage it,' Krillin thought miserably.

"Didn't Tien say Dad was an hour off?" Gohan asked hopefully.

"I didn't take into account the length of Snake Way, the fact he doesn't know the Expeditor, and now Kami is dead he can't simply be teleported from midway," Tien explained, realising how stupid it was to speak without thinking - he was after all in a position of power in the group.

'Great. Two hours won't be enough then, I need you all to charge up, bring your power to the max. We'll need it later,' Krillin thought, hoping Tien may pick up on it.

His suggestion was so intense, that all the assembled warriors immediately picked up on it and chaos ensued.

"Krillin, he'll murder you! You can't do this, we should all fight together," Yamcha protested as Krillin slipped into the Turtle school form.

"He may well kill me, and together we may win, but at what cost? Half of us would likely die and if he pulls that ape form we're all dead. If we wait for Goku and Raditz, our combined efforts will be enough to kill Vegeta with zero casualties. I've sensed their power and together they're stronger than us four combined...you need them not me," Krillin explained sadly to his old friend, not daring to make eye contact.

"What happens if he breaks the deal?" Yamcha asked wearily, realising nothing he said would change Krillin's mind.

"Tien's in charge, you get Gohan to safety and fight until that freak is dead or you and Tien are, you injure him enough and Goku should finish him. Wish me luck," Krillin ordered as he stalked over to Vegeta and formed his fight stance.

"The deal was 15 minutes, Baldy, I'll be sure to end your suffering in half that time," Vegeta taunted as powered up, making the ground tremor and storm clouds gather, his purple aura pulsing.

'I am so dead,' Krillin groaned as he realised the power gap between them.

"First move to you, Runt," Vegeta declared as he stood, arms crossed.

'Screw it,' Krillin thought in resignation.

Krillin launched himself forwards for a flying kick, which landed on Vegeta's chin jerking his head up. Grinning, Vegeta lowered his head down and grabbed Krillin's leg. Other than a slight trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, Vegeta was unharmed.

"Oh, shit," Krillin gasped as he saw how little effect he had had on the smirking Prince.

"My turn, Human," Vegeta laughed as he used his grip on Krillin to slam him into the ground head first.

He repeated this, with Krillin groaning in fear and pain each time, until he started to get his senses back when Vegeta paused to adjust his grip.

Twisting as Vegeta raised him up, Krillin formed a whispered Kamehameha and launched it point-blank into Vegeta's chest and face, causing him to let go.

"Nicely done, Baldy, that hurt a bit. Now, I'll make you really suffer," Vegeta growled as the beam's glow faded.

He darted towards Krillin with a chop that barely missed his neck, as Krillin bounded left to avoid it. Vegeta then swung his left leg up, smashing Krillin skyward. As his eyes bulged with agony, Krillin saw the fists closing down on his head and flew forwards. Turning sharply he fired a barrage of yellow energy bullets at Vegeta, who swatted them aside and relentlessly kept moving towards him.

"Okay, time for the big guns: Soul Burst times two!" Krillin cried as his aura expanded and took on a gold tint.

"Even with that, you are not even worth half of me," Vegeta laughed as he gathered an energy attack between his palms.

'Fire with fire time. Beam struggle should waste time, I'm nearly halfway through this,' Krillin optimistically thought, as he too charged energy.

"Kamehameha!" Krillin barked as blue energy shot towards Vegeta.

"Galick Gun!" Vegeta roared, unleashing an immense beam of purple Ki at Krillin.

The two opposing energies collided resulting in a shock wave that shook the entire region, the two beams merged into a navy hue of violent energy that surged and crackled wildly.

'I'm losing this, my power is through the roof and I'm losing this, he seems invincible,' Krillin panicked as Vegeta's beam gained rapid ground towards him.

"Soul Burst time three!" Krillin screamed as his aura exploded erratically, the surging, volatile energy burning him.

'His power level shot to nearly 14,000, this is worrying. I could beat him but I don't want the Tri-clops knowing my true limit. He is significantly stronger and with those techniques may well over power me briefly,' Vegeta reasoned allowing his Ki flow into the beam to ebb away.

As Krillin's beam engulfed Vegeta's attack, the glare blinded him and he was unaware Vegeta was no longer in the firing line.

Floating inches above Krillin was a smug Vegeta, still grinning from his perceived victory. Krillin noticed the Ki signature, his smile vanishing as he turned to see Vegeta's outstretched hand in front of his face, a Ki ball formed and pulsing.

"Crap baskets," Krillin whimpered as the blast exploded, hurtling him to the ground and covering him in facial burns. He screamed until he crashed down, unable to rise again.

"I can't believe he survived that. This monster is going to torture him to death! We need to help," Yamcha ranted as he started to fly off to intercept a casually approaching Vegeta.

He was held back by Tien who struggled furiously with the former bandit.

"Let go of me!" Yamcha snapped still straining against the restriction but getting nowhere.

"Think for a minute! If we three charge in we might just beat Vegeta, but if he transforms we're screwed. We're down to two senzu beans thanks to Piccolo's supply being destroyed when he was killed. One for Krillin after this, and Gohan if he gets injured," Tien explained tersely, the feeling of helplessness grating on him.

Yamcha relaxed and nodded mutely in defeat, if anyone other than Krillin knew how to fight tactically it was Tien, and he respected that.

That still didn't stop him grimacing as he saw Krillin being kicked up off the ground by Vegeta, who had stopped laughing sadistically.

"You have stopped fighting back, this is suddenly a lot less fun. Couldn't even last 11 minutes...time to put you out of your misery, grasshopper," Vegeta called to Krillin who hung limply in the air, immobile and silent.

Stepping back and gathering purple energy, Vegeta began to charge the killing blow. Just as he was about to fire he was struck simultaneously by three rapid and powerful blows to the head and back which smashed him to the ground on top of the Ki he'd charged, detonating it and singeing the warrior.

Expecting a three pronged Ki assault Vegeta sprang up and formed an explosive circle of Ki hoping to stun his assailants or stop the attacks. However, his attack was without a target and did nothing but create a crater.

"What the…?" Vegeta began as he turned frantically trying to see or get a scouter reading on his enemies.

"Above you, Prince of bad hair," a familiar voice mocked from directly above Vegeta.

Wheeling to face his attacker, Vegeta was met with an incredulous sight. Krillin was there with a very tattered gi and bruised, blood stained body, though it appeared that he was otherwise unhurt.

"How?! You were half dead, now you're able to mock me," Vegeta seethed, not believing how the battle had turned so quickly.

"Multiform technique, for the past five minutes you've been beating down a clone I made when the flash from our power struggle blinded you," Krillin explained, trying to run down the clock.

"I still have three minutes, I'll be sure to kill you in 2 minutes 59," Vegeta snapped as he launched towards Krillin, only to be hit in the back by a slicing attack.

Blood seeping from his gashed armour he turned to see another Krillin, who was smirking coldly.

"Destructo Disk, best move ever," the clone laughed as another copy split from him, also grinning.

"You will all die for this!" Vegeta roared as he fired a barrage of Ki bullets and balls in every direction.

The attacks arced uselessly through the sky as the Krillins weaved around, eventually though, one was struck in the abdomen and was blasted to the ground.

'One down,' Vegeta thought with glee as he charged another Galick Gun to destroy the clone's body and thus Krillin.

As the beam reached the prone form, another copy swooped in and partially blocked it as the true Krillin absorbed the unconscious clone.

Thinking quickly, a weakened and rattled Krillin dashed to and absorbed the attack blocking clone, taking the rest of the Galick Gun head on. As the Ki seared his skin and burnt off the remnants of his gi top he collapsed onto his knees, the last of his energy spent.

Seeing this a weary Vegeta checked how long he had left. He had 90 seconds.

'That's all I need,' he thought sadistically as he sprinted to Krillin and kicked his chin launching him into the air.

Rising to meet him, Vegeta hit him two handed so he careered upwards, out pacing him he flew below and fired a rapid Galick Gun which buffeted Krillin upwards where he floundered, no longer able to levitate or scream, the pain shutting him down.

Not content with the lack of reaction from Krillin, Vegeta allowed him to plummet to Earth. As the dust cleared a barely conscious Krillin struggled to stand, clutching his sides with one arm.

Descending directly behind him, Vegeta grabbed Krillin by the neck and kidney punched him with his free arm, eliciting a low moan from Krillin as fresh agony wracked his body though he remained standing.

Hurling him away Vegeta launched an energy barrage to finish him as he was down to less than 30 seconds of the contest time.

When he finished he expected to see ash but was dismayed when he saw Krillin's knelt form surrounded by a cracked energy shield.

"Why won't you die?!" Vegeta bellowed in blind rage as he charged at Krillin once more.

"I saved my last reserve for what would be your final assault, times up Vegeta, you lose," Krillin croaked as he further slumped to the ground.

This made Vegeta stop in his tracks and fly off, screaming in anguish, levelling anything he saw and swearing vengeance.

'I'd kill that runt now, but a Prince must honour his deals,' Vegeta fumingly conceded as he regained composer and drifted off to where Yamcha was giving Krillin a senzu bean.

"I stick to my word, he lived so the ceasefire starts now. Enjoy your last two hours alive," Vegeta spat at Tien as he set off again for his pod.

"Krillin, you okay, buddy?" Yamcha asked worriedly as Krillin swallowed the Senzu.

The cuts and burns vanished in an instant but the unnatural angle of his right arm and internal damage clearly remained.

"Never better," Krillin croaked as he sat up slowly, every movement agony.

"Tien, why can't we fight Vegeta now whilst he's weaker?" Gohan asked miserably, the sight of his godfather's injury sickening him.

"Numbers, kid, we don't have them. You and I are it, Krillin can't fight now and Yamcha is the wounded's last line, he knows a final attack we don't," Tien replied wearily as he patted the boy on the back.

'Goku, where are you? We're barely holding on,' Tien pleaded to his old friend.

"Raditz, we need to go faster!" Goku called as he streaked across Snake Way.

"It's no us! Even at maximum speed like this, it'll be just over two hours before we get there," Raditz shouted back as he struggled to keep up.

'Damn it. C'mon guys, be safe, I'm coming,' Goku thought hopefully.

"It's nearly two hours. Goku won't make it in time," Yamcha muttered to Tien out of Krillin and Gohan's earshot.

"I know, he's close though, so you still confident you can pull off the divine wrath?" Tien replied as he began raising his power in preparation, knowing it would be down to him and Gohan to stall Vegeta.

"Yeah, I can do it. If I do use it though the collateral damage is going to be horrific, without Dragon Balls, is it worth it?" Yamcha asked, baulking at the idea of wiping out an entire continent.

"If we can't stop him and he finds out the dragon balls died with Piccolo he'll wipe out the planet in spite. This way people will remain to try and get another of Piccolo's race to make new Dragon Balls and undo the carnage," Tien explained with forced detachment, detesting the idea of being responsible for the deaths of billions, for the greater good or not.

"Time's up, Humans!" Vegeta's voice echoed menacingly as he descended from a nearby mountain peak, a malicious curve on his lips.

Well Krillin is going to need a few senzus after that! How will Vegeta react after this humiliation? Who will survive his wrath and where are Goku and Raditz? Find out next time!

As always a massive thank you to my editor Apollo1147 who despite technical issues on my end has once again made this fic possible! Furthermore I have a music recommendation for this chapter, Break by Three Days Grace. I will be making a recommendation each chapter and will edit past chapters from now on.


	8. The Boys Are Back In Town

"Gohan with me!" Tien ordered as he slipped into the 'Crane Stance', warily eyeing the approaching Vegeta.

"Right," Gohan replied nervously.

"I've wasted enough time here, make the boy stand down. Killing Saiyan children is not conducive for my plans, " Vegeta demanded as he started to power up, his pale blue aura ripping up rubble around him.

"I am no Saiyan! I'll kill you for calling me that," Gohan raged as his aura flared and his power rose briefly, setting off Vegeta's scouter.

_'7,500...the boy can't be that strong, must be a glitch,'_ Vegeta thought, trying to dismiss his momentary concern.

'_I had no idea Gohan was that strong, if we strike fast and as hard as possible, we may kill him,' _Tien thought, relief flooding him as he felt their odds improve.

"Well, Tri-clops, let's hope you put up a better fight than the last bald humans," Vegeta taunted as he stopped charging up.

"Don't talk about my friends!" Gohan shouted as he lunged for Vegeta, his aura expanding with each word.

Sidestepping the obvious assault, Vegeta lazily snap kicked Gohan away and fired a Ki blast towards Tien.

The blast sailed by, as Tien was no longer in his original position and had used the Expeditor to blur behind Vegeta, firing a Dodon Ray that, while small, was potent. Turning in order to better take the blow, Vegeta bounced the beam off his chest armour's side, though the energy completely obliterated the already cracked armour.

Growling at this, Vegeta launched a barrage of rapid Ki Blasts which Tien proceeded to dodge using the Expeditor, but the effort quickly began to drain him and he was caught by several stinging Energy Bullets which slowly started to take their toll.

_'Gohan where are you?'_ Tien thought as he was struck by yet another burning projectile, the pain making him grimace.

No sooner as he thought this, Tien saw vast mass of blue energy crash down and engulf Vegeta, Gohan had using the distraction and had taken the opportunity to form a Soul Strike enhanced Kamehameha.

Giving a momentary respite, Tien let go of the Expeditor technique and watched intensely for signs of life from within the attack. As Gohan ceased pouring energy in, Tien noticed a spike in power within the beam, which was closely followed by a purple glow that with a scream, jettisoned upwards from Vegeta and totally assimilated Gohan's attack.

Unable to dodge all the energy, Gohan blocked as best he could but the assault burned his arms, causing huge blisters and sent him tumbling to the ground with a sickening scream.

"That bloody hurt, Half Breed! You are now first to die!" Vegeta raged as he stepped out of the glow, bruised on the face and missing pieces uniform, but very much alive.

"Your fight is with me!" Tien snapped as he powered up to a Soul Strike times 3 and smashed side on into Vegeta, sending him sprawling.

_'That should give Gohan enough time to regroup,'_ Tien thought hurriedly as he prepared for Vegeta's counterattack.

Springing to his feet, Vegeta slowly moved his right hand to his chin, which was slowly trickling blood from his mouth, wiping some away with his glove he stared at it with a mixture of disbelief and outrage.

"No-one from a non-warrior race has ever made me bleed before, Tri-Clops...you'll die first instead, for that," Vegeta seethed with a false air of calm.

Clenching a fist, Vegeta launched at blinding speed towards Tien. Unable to dodge properly, Tien threw up a Ki shield which momentarily halted Vegeta's rushed attack. Throwing numerous punches and kicks, Vegeta began to buckle the Ki shield, tiring Tien rapidly.

Just before his last punch was going to breakthrough, Vegeta felt something smash into his skull and was sent reeling from Tien.

Gohan stood defiant, white aura burning with a harsh light in his eyes that disturbed even Tien.

"Stay away from my friends, this fight is between us now," Gohan barked at Vegeta before flying straight at him.

The sheer ferocity and unrestrained power of Gohan's assault staggered Vegeta. Gohan fired several Ki blasts just before reaching Vegeta, forcing him to block which left his face open to an earth-shattering two handed hook from Gohan.

For Vegeta time slowed down, he felt the impact and then the searing pain which forced blood to spray from his mouth. He felt the awkward disorientation of being knocked skywards. Finally, he became aware of stabbing agony in his side as Gohan repeatedly kicked him further upwards.

_'This cannot be. He's making a fool of his prince, I will not allow this!' _Vegeta screamed to himself.

With his pride burning again, Vegeta's senses returned and time seemed to slow even more, though in this case it certainly aided Vegeta. With his rage evoked, he was fighting at his highest level again, the sight of Gohan forming a Kamehameha to finish him from below seemed pitifully slow.

Grinning once again, Vegeta bellowed and launched a rapidly formed yet immense Ki sphere which he launched at Gohan.

Seeing no other choice Gohan unleashed his wave. It slammed into Vegeta's yellow energy sphere and tilted it sideways and away from him, causing it to detonate several miles away, sending mushroom clouds billowing up.

Vegeta had taken advantage of Gohan's commitment to the defence and after placing a Ki shield to hamper Tien was floating inches behind Gohan, arms crossed and confident once more.

"Where is he?!" Gohan snarled, scanning the area.

"Behind you," Vegeta replied icily.

With that Gohan whirled round and punched at Vegeta's gut only for the prince to grab his fist and begin to crush it.

"Now, I'll show you how why we Saiyans respect our royalty," Vegeta sneered as he brought his knee up into Gohan's stomach, stunning then grabbed the boys hair and repeatedly smashed his face into his knee sending blood splattering in all directions.

The pain brought Gohan back to his senses and he lashed out wildly, forcing Vegeta off him. Before he could even fully straighten Vegeta was on him again punching him in the ribs from the side.

Gohan swept his left leg sideways in an attempt to smash Vegeta's head but the prince blocked it with his forearm and using leverage, flipped Gohan over him. As he did so he turned so he was facing Gohan's back and shoved his right arm's palm up, forming an azure energy ball which he then released into Gohan.

The attack hurtled the young fighter uncontrollably to the ground where it then detonated, the attack was so intense the flash temporarily blinded everyone in the battle area.

_'I'm not strong enough; something else like that will kill me,_' Gohan realised suddenly becoming scared, as he weakly struggled up.

"Give up, Boy, and I will spare you," Vegeta barked as he paced to Gohan.

_'I am not leaving my friends to fight this monster!' _Gohan thought, instantly rejecting the offer despite his fear.

"Screw you, Prince of all Dead Monkeys," Gohan spat defiantly as he reignited his aura, charging back to Vegeta.

"Yes!" Tien yelled as his fists finally broke through the Ki barriers Vegeta had placed. His elation however drained away as he saw the most unfair fight in history unfold.

Gohan while initially putting up a good fight was wounded and weary, whereas Vegeta had only been superficially harmed. This difference soon showed as Gohan had become unable to fight effectively, for every blow he landed Vegeta had struck him at least four times. Gohan continued to counter Vegeta's oncoming punches with his forearms until he was forced to block a low blow with a strike of his own, leaving himself open to a snap kick which reeled his head back. Blacking out, Gohan was jolted back by the worst pain of his life, Vegeta was pummelling him around like a flying speedball, his last punch breaking his nose which sent blood arcing through the sky.

Each time Gohan attempted to right himself, he was smacked back down again, until having committed all his energy, Gohan powered up his final technique. Placing both hands together at chest height at the fingertips yellow energy crackled between his formed he turned agonisingly towards the fast approaching Vegeta and poured all he had towards him, screaming the technique's name.

"Masenko!" Gohan cried as he pushed his small body to its utter limit.

Even as the beam hurtled towards Vegeta the prince fired his own beam to intercept. Having slowed the progress of the energy, he flew around and smashed Gohan's orbital bone as the boy desperately tried to halt his assault.

Vegeta proceeded to pummel the boy mercilessly, which is what Tien had just begun to witness.

'No! The child will not die!" Tien roared as he pushed himself into Spirit Burst x2 and fired a Dodon Ray into the side of Vegeta, causing the Saiyan to slam diagonally away from Gohan into boulders.

Flying at top speed, Tien grabbed the young boy and floated him to the ground. Gently he set him down, and produced his Senzu bean.

"No," Gohan protested as Tien attempted to give it to him.

"Why not?!" Tien growled as he saw Vegeta rise from his temporary landing zone.

"I wasn't strong enough. I failed all of you. You're stronger and will need the senzu more. I don't deserve it," Gohan choked out as pain wracked his body.

"You failed no-one Gohan...besides eating isn't a choice you have," Tien replied as he forced the Senzu Bean into Gohan's mouth where he instinctively swallowed.

Gohan's fractures melded back into place and his wounds began to vanish; however he was still low on blood and deathly exhausted.

"Why use it on me? You could have needed that to save the others," Gohan demanded as he slowly sat up, eyeing Vegeta scuffling with Yamcha who had flown in to intercept the Prince.

"Because I saw how you fought earlier, it was beyond anything I'd seen. With that much potential I'd be insane not to save you, you're the last defence this planet has, if I and your father fail. Now, go take Krillin to the Lookout and seek healing from Korin," Tien ordered as he powered up.

"Ok. I have one question though, you had zero obligation to save me, yet you risked everything. Why?" Gohan asked as he gingerly scooped up Krillin.

_'I can't tell anyone why, children will never die when I can prevent it...not again,' _Tien reflected bitterly as he forced a smile.

"Because I think you've the potential to be the best of us," Tien replied with a brief grin as he turned back to the advancing Vegeta.

Gohan flashed a Son-style thumbs up and grin at this in an attempt to lessen Tien's nerves before flying off with Krillin.

"You're gonna go far, kid," Tien muttered as Yamcha landed next to him ready to fight.

"We going for plan 'Divine Wrath'?" Yamcha asked as he powered up to Spirit Burst x2.

"Yeah," Tien replied grimly as he did the same.

"If it misses, we'll kill everyone on the Lookout, the fight has brought us pretty close to there." Yamcha reminded his friend as he began to radiate silver light.

"I know, if it misses I have a plan, anyway," Tien informed as he pushed into Spirit Burst x3.

"Earthlings. You've done well I must say, I commend you for that. However, now is the point you either hand over the dragon balls or perish. I am through playing around," Vegeta bellowed as he slowly stalked towards them.

_'Holy crap he looks healed! Wait a minute, where's my senzu bean?!' _Yamcha panicked as it dawned on him his pouch was gone.

"Yes, Human, I snatched your pouch in the scuffle earlier; not only am I healed, but I am over a thousand power units stronger," Vegeta laughed as he saw Yamcha reach for where his pouch had been.

_'No time, he'll kill us both in minutes...get charging now, I will have to go all out,'_ Tien ordered mentally.

"Bad news, Your Highness, you killed Piccolo. If he dies, the dragon balls creator does too, and as he's the source of power for the balls..." Tien taunted Vegeta, hoping to waste time whilst enjoying the anguished realisation on Vegeta's face.

"No...I will kill you!" Vegeta roared as he blindly rushed Tien, his rage clouding all sense.

Tien blocked the first punch with his right arm and used his left to grab Vegeta's hair, dragging him down he brought his leg up into Vegeta's face with caused a muffled groan from Vegeta.

Undeterred, Vegeta launched himself upwards and smashed his right leg into Tien's ribs, which caused the human to release him. Tien then threw a devastating punch at Vegeta who side stepped it and while grabbing the offending arm spun and drew Tien in, kicking him with both legs as he then released Tien. Tien whilst being slammed backwards fired a Dodon Ray which struck Vegeta's left shoulder, scorching it.

Vegeta barely felt it as his adrenaline kicked into overdrive, and he flew head first into the barely-recovered Tien, crunching him into a cliff. Tien merely smirked,and vanished, turning swiftly Vegeta faced three, sadistically grinning Tiens who had four arms each, both pairs of hands forming a triangle that glistened with energy.

"Witches Curse Tri Beam!' the Tien's thundered as they blasted wave after wave of energy which hurtled towards Vegeta who fired a barely charged Galick Gun to block the onslaught. The purple energy met the bright yellow and halted the advance for all of an instant before the Galick gun was pushed bit by bit back to Vegeta.

"Yamcha! Stop charging, I can end this, do not launch that god forsaken attack!" Tien yelled as confidence began to rise, as did the strain of the beam struggle.

Hearing this, Yamcha began to expel the silver energy from his body, shaking but relieved.

"I'm not done yet, Tri-Clops!" Vegeta screamed as he freed a hand hastily to fire a tiny ball of pale blue light above his head. He then immediately put his hand back into position, adding more energy to his attack, which was now keeping Tien's assault barely three feet away.

As Vegeta began to lose hope, he kept gazing up at the miniscule orb until suddenly his pulse and heart rate quickened, he felt new power surge through his body and he began to bulk up slowly, his canines growing and his eyes flashing red.

In an instant, he began to grow and his Galick gun expanded far beyond the capacity of Tien's beam, which was hurtled right back to him.

"He's transforming, you two on my mark, attempt a Spirit Burst x6, and I'll handle the tail," Tien grunted to his copies as he saw Yamcha was still desperately trying to dispel energy, as was evident by his pulsating aura and shrieks of pain.

'Where are you, Goku? We need you,' Yamcha wondered as he feared the death of another close friend.

"Made it!" Goku yelled as he ran to King Yemma's desk, his brother close behind.

"Hello, young Goku. I know what you will ask and in light of what has transpired today and the losses you've suffered, I will indeed transport you to the Lookout," Yemma rumbled kindly but somewhat ignorantly.

"What losses?" Goku asked quickly, his eyes narrowing.

"I'm afraid your friends Piccolo, Kami, and Chiaotzu are no longer in the land of the living," Yemma softly revealed as he patted Goku's back.

"Brother, stop what you're doing, this is not the time or place," Raditz warned as he felt Goku's Ki spike wildly even though there were no visible effects yet.

"King Yemma, please take us to the Lookout. I have some unfinished business," Goku requested far too quietly.

With that, Yemma spoke an ancient phrase and the warriors were bathed in light before vanishing and materialising onto the Lookout surrounded by shocked friends. Relief flooded through Goku as he saw Gohan, Krillin, ChiChi and Master Roshi.

"Hi guys, no time to catch up, who is fighting the Saiyans right now?" Goku called as he began to drift off the Lookout.

"Tien and Yamcha! Only one Saiyan left, Vegeta," Krillin weakly replied as he hobbled out to see Goku off.

"He won't be left for long," Raditz growled as he took off after his brother.

As Vegeta grew to roughly five times his normal size, Tien nodded to his copies who struggled to harness the power of Spirit Burst x6. Their auras were expanding and contracting wildly and they were roaring in pain as they glowed red followed by gold. They stabilised slightly and their attacks began to make ground on Vegeta's, but it was slow progress.

"Good, they made it, time to pull the monkey's tail," Tien muttered to himself as he activated an even more unstable Spirit Burst x6.

_'Tien, you cannot in your current physical state safely use the Expeditor as well,' South Kai warned from Otherworld, not wanting his favourite student to die._

'It'll be a brief use, I'll pull it off,' Tien defiantly replied.

"Expeditor!" Tien roared as he hurtled towards Vegeta's tail faster than anyone could follow.

Vegeta could do nothing whilst engaged in the beam struggle and so merely braced himself as Tien smashed into and through his tail, cutting it clear off. Using the last surge of rage induced strength he had, Vegeta added a mouth blast to his beam struggle which detonated both his and Tien's attacks. The resulting flash blinded everyone and dimly from the roar of the explosion Vegeta's agonised bellows could be heard.

As vision returned to Yamcha he saw a panting and kneeling Vegeta, shaking in pain and anger while Tien stood oddly still facing the Prince. Yamcha had no time to contemplate this as the effort of releasing Divine Wrath made him blackout, thoughts of victory in his mind.

"Finish it, Tri-Clops," Vegeta hissed, knowing he wouldn't recover in time to dodge the assault.

"My pleasure," Tien spat as he started charging a Tri Beam.

Just as he was about to fire he felt a hollow sensation in his chest, ending the attack he put a hand shakily to his mouth, looking at it he saw it was coated in blood.

'What is happening?' Tien asked his old mentor as strength faded away from him.

'I warned you of the strain...Nappa gravely wounded you earlier and inferior senzu or not that will lower your resilience. The final combination was too much, I'm afraid...sadly, I will see you all too soon. I am truly sorry, Tien, you today were the hero of humanity and for this, you will be rewarded,' South Kai informed his pupil sadly, the young man had reminded the Kai of a more honourable version of himself and had come to truly care for him.

Resigning himself to his fate Tien slumped to his knees, as he fell forwards a single image and thought flashed through his mind.

_'Launch,_' Tien thought sadly as darkness enveloped his mind.

Rising slowly, Vegeta saw an unconscious Yamcha and a presumably dead Tien before him.

"They're done for...now, to kill the rest of the weaklings, destroy this planet and before I know it I'll be on Namek and this will finally be over!" Vegeta laughed to himself as he fired a one handed Ki blast at Yamcha.

Before the blast reached the bandit it was deflected upwards by some unknown force.

"It's not over, Vegeta. It's just begun for you," a voice coldly replied from above Vegeta.

Goku had arrived just in time to see Tien fall, this, along with the knowledge of the other deaths, had brought about a terrifying change in his demeanour. He floated above the beleaguered Prince, arms crossed and face in a dark, an unforgiving scowl, and radiating energy without any need but to intimidate Vegeta.

"You must be Kakarrot. You still won't be enough alone, I've been through hell today and emerged victorious," Vegeta bragged, his confident facade returning.

"Good thing he's not alone then, my Prince," a gravelly voice rumbled sarcastically from behind Vegeta.

Turning he saw someone he knew was dead. Raditz.

"How? You were dead! I saw you die," Vegeta spluttered, shock crumbling his prideful confidence.

"You spoke of emerging victorious through hell. Well I literally did in order to return, just so I could give you a taste of it," Raditz smirked in reply as he powered up to his maximum limit of five thousand.

"I'll still beat both of you!" Vegeta roared in defiance as he started to power up.

"After all you've done today, trust me, you won't," Goku replied with a hard glint in his eyes as he landed next to his brother.

The Saiyan brothers locked eyes with Vegeta, awaiting the first move in what would be the deciding fight of Earth's fate.

Well its time for the final fight of the Saiyan saga! Will Goku and Raditz emerge triumphant? Find out next time! The next chapter of HofH will be longer than the past couple due to its importance as the last non filler chapter of the Saiyan saga, there will also be a surprise for you guys at the end of it. I hope you all enjoyed this, Tien's death was probably the hardest thing I've had to write so far and I'd finished three scenarios before choosing this one, hopefully you'll think I chose the right path. Continuing with my music suggestions to accompany chapters I recommend for the Gohan fight scenes only, 'Your Gonna Go Far Kid' by The Offspring. For the rest of the chapter I'd recommend A Little Faster by the band There For Tomorrow. Once again an immense thank you to my editor Apollo1147, also thanks goes out to everyone in Mt Paozu's Gathering Forum who have helped me with this chapter, it's a great forum with brilliantly talented writers, and I highly recommend you check them out.

P.S, as some of you may know I am working on Marorin5's fic That Golden Fighter, The New Classmates a collab with Marorin and Zerolava's Dragon Ball Future Generation so please feel free to go have a look and give some feedback!


	9. Justice Prevails

"This is your last chance. Leave now and never return," Goku ordered as he stared down Vegeta.

"And what if I don't?" Vegeta retorted.

"You will suffer and die more brutally than even Frieza could imagine," Raditz replied with hatred dripping from each word.

"I doubt that's possible. Besides, shame of Bardock, you could never finish a job properly," Vegeta scoffed as he began sizing up his former soldier.

"If you won't leave then you leave me no choice...I still don't get why you're refusing to go. You can't make a wish due to your own actions yet you continue to harm and kill. Where's your empathy?" Goku asked with angry resignation.

"Empathy is a luxury warriors don't have," Vegeta growled, as an image of purple light followed by smoke and shadows flashed through his mind.

"It's sad you think that way," Goku replied as he stepped towards Vegeta.

Vegeta took this as a sign of aggression and rocketed towards Goku, aura blazing only to be hurtled sideways as Ki bombarded his left side.

"No-one rushes my brother," Raditz barked as he lowered his still glowing arms down, his red aura fading.

Getting up quickly Vegeta turned from Goku to Raditz and sprayed the area with Ki bullets, forcing him to dodge, seeing a chance Vegeta then snapped back to Goku and unleashed an energy volley that lit up the sky.

With Goku distracted Vegeta glanced at Raditz who was forced to stop dodging and throw up a Ki wave to destroy the oncoming energy bullets. Realising this forced Raditz to remain stationary Vegeta smirked before flying up and hurling himself into Raditz feet first. He stuck the distracted warrior in the abdomen and made spittle fly from his mouth in pain and shock, Vegeta then proceeded to charge Ki in his right palm and threw a concussive punch at Raditz's head. As his fist streaked forwards Vegeta's arm lost all momentum and was wrenched up and back, Goku had stepped back in.

Still twisting Vegeta's arm Goku bent the Prince backwards and slammed his knee into his spine, causing the battle hardened Saiyan to groan.

Presented with an opening Raditz unleashed a Kaio-Ken x 2 and rained blows down on the vulnerable Vegeta's chest and stomach, smashing away small fragments off his armour.

Acting on instinct Vegeta threw out an explosive wave of Ki that buffeted his assailants away. Fuelled by pain induced rage, Vegeta immediately sprang on Goku and kicked at his ribs, Goku barely blocked with his right forearm, only to be caught with a left hook that snapped his head back. Goku punched rapidly at the Prince only to be parried instantly. Goku lashed out with his legs only for Vegeta to grab one and pull him in. As Goku was lurched forwards Vegeta smashed his free fist into Goku's stomach, making his head swim. Before Vegeta could strike again Goku used his free leg to kick Vegeta's chin, launching him back. This resulted in Goku being dropped to the ground with a heavy impact. Goku shook off the pain and sprang back up only to be met with a downwards kick from Vegeta which he blocked with his forearm. Turning slightly Goku saw Raditz approaching from directly above Vegeta and grabbed Vegeta's next strike forcing a grapple.

"You won't win." Goku stated as he began to lose control in the struggle. His legs slowly being inched back as he pushed forwards.

"I appear to be, why wouldn't I?" Vegeta grunted out.

"Because I have back up," Goku grinned just as Raditz's speed enhanced legs crashed down onto Vegeta's skull.

Pain exploded through Vegeta. He could barely register what happened. Out of sheer desperation he released Ki, forcing Raditz away and flew as high as he could to get breathing space.

"Did you feel that?" Goku asked his brother as he sensed Vegeta's power.

"Yeah his energy just dipped, a lot. The two of us have this in the bag," Raditz laughed; grinning evilly at the thought of finally killing his chief tormentor of decades.

"No Raditz," Goku replied quickly, his voice unusually hard.

"Why not?" Raditz asked, puzzled.

"He's caused the death of my friends, nearly murdered my son and threatened the life of the woman I love. I will be the one to finish this. Alone," Goke explained, the steel in his voice making it clear he was not to be argued with.

"Fine. But if he's about to kill you I'm jumping in. And if we ever have to face Frieza I get to end the bastard," Raditz growled, trying to at least salvage something for himself. The thought of being denied revenge against the most brutal figure of his life disgusted Raditz.

"Deal," Goku smiled confidently back, his smile widening as he felt Vegeta's Ki approach very slowly.

"I will make you watch as I rip that stupid smiling face off your brother's skull," Vegeta promised grimly to Raditz as he stalked closer.

"Good luck, you've been trying to kill his friends all day and haven't managed it. Personally I think you're slipping." Raditz replied dismissively as he turned away.

"Do not turn from me Raditz!" Vegeta barked, snubbed by the disrespect, earth floating around him as excess power radiated off him.

"If you've a problem take it up with me. I dare you," Goku taunted, enjoying the state Vegeta was in.

"You are dying for this," Vegeta whispered, his body shaking slightly as blinding hate coursed through him.

_'I will not tolerate this! Kakarot this whole fiasco is your fault_," Vegeta thought furiously.

Without warning the two fighters charged each other, Vegeta threw a wild right hook which Goku ducked and countered with a stomach blow. Ignoring the pain Vegeta kicked out and broke through Goku's cross guard, striking his chest hard. Buoyed by this Vegeta then kicked at Goku's side which was blocked by his elbow. Vegeta followed up by twisting slightly and rammed his elbow into Goku's shoulder making the arm numb for a moment.

Caught by surprise Goku tried to back away but was too slow. Vegeta unleashed a furious volley of kicks that battered Goku around, before leaping foot first into Goku's stomach. Goku was sent crashing into the dirt away from Vegeta who was already approaching again. Scrabbling up, Goku flexed his arm to regain feeling just before the Prince reached him.

"Time to get serious!" Goku shouted as a red aura surrounded him again and the dirt rose in waves.

"Kaio-Ken x 2!" He yelled as his power rose to around thirteen thousand, the Earth literally shaking from the display of power.

As Vegeta came charging to him Goku waited until Vegeta was virtually in striking range and put his fingers to his eyes.

"Solar Flare!" Goku exclaimed as he blinded Vegeta in close quarters.

"Damn it!" Vegeta yelled in frustration as he rubbed his eyes.

Total white enveloped Vegeta's vision and he was essentially blind. Goku increased his power using a kaio-ken times three and kicked Vegeta across the face before the Prince could react. As Vegeta stumbled from the strike he fell onto a vicious left hook from Goku which sent him flying back. As Vegeta began to slow himself he was expertly struck in a cluster nerve by a kick and his right leg and arm went limp.

Pain obscuring sense Vegeta gave up on his still blurred vision and instead merely spun on the spot, firing Ki blasts from his left arm in a random frenzied rate. Goku had already gone in for another attack and was unable to dodge one of the salvos, the blasts keeping him at bay and burning him.

Vegeta's vison came back into focus just as Goku closed down the gap to him. Acting, Vegeta deliberately missed a few blasts, this made Goku cocky and his new assault lacked precision.

Goku kicked downwards towards Vegeta's head but was surprised to meet firm resistance.

The Prince was livid. A hate he'd only ever felt for Frieza reared its head for the first time in a decade, strange yet dimly familiar power briefly exploded within him. Vegeta rose his head and glared straight into Goku's eyes. His eyes were flashing White and Teal before returning to the usual smouldering brown as he had hold of Goku's leg.

"My turn," Vegeta hissed with a smirk as new power and confidence flooded through him.

Twisting Goku's leg he launched the Earth raised Saiyan up and immediately rocketed into him fists first.

Feeling faint from the pain coursing through his body Goku quickly reached an arm down to Vegeta's chest. Putting his fingers together into a gun shape he charged Ki rapidly.

"This is for Chaiotzu and Tien!" Goku grimaced angrily, unable to yell through waves of pain.

"Dodon Ray!" Goku shouted weakly as he released the energy.

The point blank force sent Vegeta crashing sideways, ending his relentless pummelling of Goku.

Righting himself, Goku flared up a Kaio-Ken x 3, just in time to see a screaming Vegeta speeding towards him.

'_He has a big advantage in aerial fighting, better take this to the ground_,'Goku thought tactically. Normally he fought on instinct, but with this much at stake Goku realised he had to focus and think logically, a rare occurrence despite being more than capable.

With that he descended as fast as he could, forcing Vegeta to fly on an angle towards him.

Vegeta lead with a speed enhanced kick at Goku's chest, luckily Goku had thrown up a cross guard, though it heavily bruised his arms. As Goku moved his arms he was kicked in the ribs, making him gasp. He retaliated with a jab that Vegeta blocked and returned. Catching the blow with his forearm Goku span slightly whilst crouching, he pushed his left leg out forcing Vegeta to jump to avoid being swept. As Vegeta fell back down Goku swung up and hit Vegeta in the stomach and side. The force doubled Vegeta over and he received a right uppercut that knocked him backwards.

_'Ok, I felt ribs break. The rest of this should be easy_,' Goku thought in relief, his gi was shredded exposing small streams of sweat diluted blood that slowly dripped from his tanned, muscular chest.

Goku began charging a Kamehameha to finish off the still prone Vegeta. He fired the energy wave and was momentarily blinded by the flash. Once the glow faded he saw only a small crater, Vegeta's body was not there.

"_That shouldn't have destroyed the body...unless he was never there_," Goku muttered to himself as he threw a guard up and spun around. Only to meet a fist that shattered his nose, sending blood spraying everywhere in arcs.

"No shit," Vegeta barked as he punched Goku in the stomach and then the ribs, making him collapse.

Vegeta stamped down at Goku's head but missed as he rolled away. Firing a ki blast to slow Vegeta down, Goku got up.

Ignoring the agony he was in, Goku leapt at Vegeta once again, igniting a Kaio-Ken x 3.

Vegeta kicked out at Goku who blocked it with his knee and struck back, Vegeta caught the blow and punched towards Goku's chest only have it deflected by a forearm. Goku push-kicked Vegeta off him and drove forwards with a flurry of punches. Vegeta blocked the first barrage but he was struggling to keep up.

'_How is he so fast_?!' He thought furiously as he was caught in the side.

Trading blows Vegeta saw a small opening and feinted with his right leg, forcing Goku's right arm down. Vegeta concentrated all his Ki into his arm and let fly at Goku's already battered face.

Seeing the punch coming Goku turned his head just in time. The blow grazed past his cheek, seeing an opportunity Goku then drew his head back and lurched it forwards, slamming it into Vegeta's forehead and nose. A sickening crunch was heard and it forced Vegeta to back off. Putting a hand up Vegeta touched the area, pain forced him to pull it back and as he did he saw his hand coated in fresh blood. Goku himself was a bit disorientated from what amounted to a cheap headbutt.

"You broke the proudest feature of my face! You utter bastard Kakarot!" Vegta raged as he began to pull himself together.

"Well now we match," Goku laughed, coughing with pain from doing so.

"I will teach you not to laugh at me again! I am going to make a necklace from your entrails!" Vegeta bellowed with little coherence due to his nose as he sprang forth, clashing with Goku again.

Watching from afar Raditz heard what was said and chuckled.

"Oh boy is he pissed! I haven't heard or seen him like this since that jock-strap incident with the Ginyu's. Keep it up little brother!" Raditz encouraged, fully enjoying the spectacle.

Goku and Vegeta hopped back as they each dodged a kick, panting heavily they began to sense for signs of weakness.

'_His power isn't dropping_!' Vegeta fumed, this new information tipped him over the edge and he rocketed leg first into the unprepared Goku, slamming him into the rubble that had once been a plateau.

Kicking down Vegeta got a solid purchase on Goku's throat, increasing pressure as quickly as he could. Glee on his face as he saw the light begin to dim in the third class's eyes.

Through strangled gasps Goku went limp and began to choke out what to Vegeta was an all too familiar phrase.

"Kamehameha!" Goku intoned as a veritable sea of blue energy crashed into Vegeta, sending him off of Goku and several hundred metres away.

Struggling to his feet, Goku looked over at the area where Vegetav had landed and slowly smiled, he had this.

Goku swiftly had the anguished grin wiped off his face however when he saw Vegeta begin to rise.

"He doesn't stop coming!" Goku sighed in disbelief and by this point sheer exhaustion.

"Why? Why does he keep hitting me in the eyes?" Vegeta asked himself rhetorically, his eyes burning and his marked with white dots.

'_Goku, explain_,' A rather high-pitched voice shouted, seemingly into Goku's head as Vegeta slammed into him.

'_Oh hey King Kai, good afternoon_!' Goku greeted as he slid under a wild punch easily.

'_Goku, why is Vegeta not dead yet_?!' King Kai asked anxiously as he paced his small planet, ignoring Gregory's questions.

'_He won't stay down! He's really tough, don't know which of us will be left after this,_' Goku replied honestly, his train of thought slipping along with his mental connection as Vegeta drove an elbow into his ribs.

'_Goku! I can feel that pain through the link! Finish this! I mean the hell is Raditz doing_?!' King Kai ordered in concern, reeling slightly from the stab of pain.

'_I told him to leave it to me, I want to get justice for the others myself!_' Goku replied as he blocked a kick with his left fist and drove the right one up past Vegeta's guard, squarely into his face.

'_Oh for the love of me! I am not a hotel service! It's bad enough half your friends are heading my way. I do not need you coming back as well! Win however you can_!' King Kai ranted, masking his affection with anger.

_'Any means_...' Goku replied as Vegeta jabbed at his head.

Twisting slightly Goku grabbed the side of Vegeta's outstretched arm and clamped down. With his teeth. Yelling incoherently Vegeta used his free arm to Ki blast Goku off, he then proceeded to swear profusely and check his arm.

'_Goku...I meant use Raditz, not Hannibal Lecter his arm_!' King Kai groaned in despair, head in hands.

'_Hannibal who_?' Goku asked before a glow and deafening roar diverted his attention.

"You bit me...two decades of frontline combat and nobody has bitten me before. You'll pay for this humiliation! I am ending this and you now, you bastard!" Vegeta screamed, charging the last of his Ki, purple energy pulsing off him.

'You know what, you've enough on your plate without me interrupting. Good luck, you'll need it!' King Kai yelped as he severed the psychic connection.

'_Well Goku's dead. Again_,' He thought miserably as he awaited the sad return of his prize pupil.

Vegeta dashed forwards, his arms engulfed in pulsing, purple Ki. Goku kicked out hoping to keep some distance, Vegeta merely sidestepped and twisted past his guard. With a crazed snarl he unleashed all of his rage in a blindingly fast barrage of attacks. Goku could barely register them even with a times three Kaio-Ken, while he blocked a few with his crossed forearms he began to lose sensation and realised much more and Vegeta would shatter his arms. Giving up with blocking, Goku drew an arm back and slammed it forwards, only to have it knocked aside, kicking furiously Goku attempted to batter Vegeta away. The Prince however just parried them with more punishing kicks of own and then sped behind Goku.

Turning on the spot, Goku crashed his left fist into Vegeta'a face rocking his head to the side. Vegeta responded by driving his right fist into Goku's unprotected face. Both men stood momentarily, pushing with all their might, neither would give in. Just as the pressure and pain nearly became unbearable for both, Vegeta ceased the pressure and opened his palm, firing a concussive KI blast straight into Goku's face.

Goku's world went blank, he could feel nothing, see nothing. It was as bad as when he had died. For the first time in years he felt fear, fear of death and what it would mean for his family and friends. There were no available Dragon balls anymore, death was final. He thought of not cracking jokes with Krillin by the lake, of never going to Capsule Corp simply to see Bulma when he was upset or lonely. He realised he'd never end up sorting things out with Chi-Chi, or see the pride and joy of his life, Gohan grow up into a better, more well-rounded man then himself.

'_I cannot allow this_,' He decidedly slowly but forcefully as the darkness began to encroach further.

'_I will not lose my family again! I will get up, I will beat Vegeta. I will live_!' He defiantly screamed at himself, drawing on new Ki reserves he'd never felt before.

Slowly the darkness began to recede from his mind and vision, with supreme effort he managed to move his right hand. Then he allowed the Ki to flood through him, warmth spreading throughout his body.

Gradually his senses began to return, he heard panicked shouting of a technique, a droning hum of energy, a faint yet cruel laugh from above him. Then his sight faded back in and he blearily saw Vegeta standing over him, stamping and punching at will, a feral grin adorning his face. Sadly as his ability to move and see came back so did his ability to feel pain.

Agony exploded through him, unlike anything he'd experienced before. He had a dull, persistent throb in his left leg, Vegeta had clearly broken it in several places. There was a surging ache in his stomach and chest, he had no idea what caused it, but briefly he wondered if death had been the wiser choice. As he breathed in he felt his sides shake and his breath catch, he experienced a stabbing sensation in his side, like he'd broken every rib. His face was struck again by Vegeta and blood trickled down Goku's into his mouth. The blood agitated the inside of his throat which was already raw and swollen. However despite this with each second the pain became more bearable; as he looked into Vegeta's sadistic face with heavy lidded eyes the new Ki reserve built up. The warmth spread and the pain began to cease, first his legs, his arms next, his chest subsided to a far duller ache, and he could thankfully no longer feel his sides.

The lack of pain sharpened his mind and senses, looking into Vegeta's eyes with renewed clarity he began to raise his head.

"Oh good, the clown lives. I could have finished you minutes ago. But I wanted to see the fear in your eyes before I killed you. Fear of me," Vegeta gleefully laughed as he began to charge Ki between his hands.

"I hate to disappoint you Vegeta, but I don't fear you. The only people I fear are my wife and Bulma," Goku replied with a painful smirk.

"Now get off me!" Goku roared as he stretched out his arms and launched a point blank Kamehameha into Vegeta, launching him off. Goku had slowly moved his hands together once he'd regained feeling and concentrated the Ki for the wave into a tiny ball, thus hiding it from Vegeta.

Goku saw Raditz struggling to hold back what he assumed was Vegeta's ki sphere and flew straight to his side, raising his arms to hold it.

Straining his arms forwards Goku began to push the Ki sphere slowly upward. Goku grunted as he began to release a flood of Ki through his hands.

"About time! Holy crap what's happened to you?" Raditz asked, totally shocked at his brother's appearance.

"Huh?" Goku replied as he looked at his sides.

His aura was fluctuating wildly and was crimson red, his veins were bulging and muscles spasmed constantly.

"Kaio-Ken is different," Goku grunted, thought and speech had become a struggle as a desire to fight, to kill began to burn within him.

"Your eyes are white as well...Thats not Kaio-Ken," Raditz replied with concern as Goku's focus began to slip.

"Vegeta. Where? Going to beat, kill him," Goku snarled as he stopped redirecting the Ki sphere to look for Vegeta.

"Goku! I cannot push this back! Kill him after!" Raditz snapped loudly as he took the brunt of the force again and was pushed back.

"Don't tell me what to do!" Goku roared as he launched a red energy wave at Raditz.

'_Shit! Ok only chance is to dodge and hope that hits this_,' Raditz thought, numbed by the fact his brother tried to harm him.

Giving one final shove Raditz cleared enough space to dash out of the way of the Sphere and energy wave. The yellow Ki wave collided with the sphere with immense force, launching the sphere up into the atmosphere where it harmlessly detonated.

Slowly the rush of adrenaline and power began to slow and Goku came to his senses.

"Raditz, I'm so sorry I couldn't control it," Goku gasped as shock made him power down, returning to normal.

"Its fine I've tried to kill you before. We're even," Raditz replied with a grin as he regained his composure.

"Yeah guess that's true," Goku laughed shakily.

"Now I believe we've a few seconds before Vegeta turns up ready to turn us into hunting trophies. So, can you get that transformation back?" Raditz asked dryly, sensing Vegeta power up for one last shot at them.

"No I think I have to be desperate. I did get healed a bit though and I'm stronger than you again," Goku replied as he began to stretch his limbs.

"Well that'll have to do, don't mess around brother, you should kill him quickly," Raditz advised sagely.

"I'll try," Goku replied awkwardly.

"And you will fail!" Vegeta thundered as flew straight into Goku from nowhere.

Vegeta grasped Goku's neck as he flew whilst driving his left fist into his chest and face, reopening partially healed wounds.

'Daren't use Kaio-Ken, still drained, time for plan b!" Goku thought, as pain spread throughout his body again.

Giving up with trying to stop Vegeta's choke hold, Goku raised his hands above his head and smashed his fists down onto Vegeta's right arm. There was a crunch as Vegeta lost all strength in his arm. His grip on Goku vanished and he looked down at his arm, it was bent at unnatural angle and was hanging uselessly.

Stopping completely Vegeta stared numbly at his arm in shock,

Whilst Vegeta was essentially paralysed Goku took the oppurtunity to charge Ki, his aura slowly growing.

"You broke my arm... Kakarot! I will be your death!" Vegeta screamed as the pain snapped him back to his senses.

Raising his head coldly Vegeta's aura sparked to life.

'_He isn't ranting, shouting or attacking. He's simply stood there...this is weirdly scary_,' Goku thought nervously, awaiting Vegeta's reaction.

Raising his left arm slowly Vegeta brought it level to his chest and flicked his palm up.

"This ends now! Die Kakarot!" Vegeta bellowed as Ki formed in an orb in front of his hand.

'He's trying to end this, I hope this is enough Ki!' Goku thought grimly as he stopped charging and began to form his signature technique.

"Big..." Vegeta growled the Ki orb expanding.

"Kame..." Goku grunted as more Ki flowed through his hands.

"Bang..."

"Hame..."

"Attack!" Vegeta roared as he fired the gigantic silver Ki wave he'd formed.

"Ha!" Goku bellowed as he released his final attack.

The two beams collided, merging into an ethereal blue at the epicentre. Neither warrior could let up, both were screaming in pain at the exertion. As they dedicated more and more Ki the beam slowly inched back and forth. Slowly however Vegeta began to win the struggle, with primal rage he began pouring life Ki into his beam, shunting Goku's efforts back.

'I can't do this, he's too close!' Goku panicked as Vegeta's beam got within a metre of him.

Giving one final push which faltered Vegeta's progress for but an instant, Goku realised he had no choice but to attempt the insane.

Silently praying to his former master, Goku began to build up and draw in Ki from around him, he raised an arm to the sky, transferring all his kamehameha committed Ki into his right arm. Though Vegeta's beam edged ever nearer Goku ignored it. Focusing only on the small sphere of bluish Ki forming above him.

'Please everyone, everything on Earth lend me some of your energy,' Goku pleaded as the Ki flowing into the orb began to diminish.

Hearing his silent and desperate urging the creatures of Earth began to yield to his call of energy. A wolf laid down weary as some of its Ki transferred to Goku, a dragon roared its support as it gave as much as it could spare, a small girl in West City gave a surprising amount. Images, thoughts of those who donated briefly flashed through Goku's mind and reinforced his resolve.

'That's enough!" Goku yelled in triumph.

Throwing his left arm down towards Vegeta the concentrated orb of Ki rapidly descended towards him.

Giving up the beam struggle Goku threw up a Ki barrier and allowed Vegeta's partially weakened beam to immerse him.

There was searing sensation as he felt his skin burn, his face and chest being worst affected. A crunch resounded as an arm broke from the concussive force and his whole body convulsed in a now familiar pain.

As the last of Vegeta's beam dissipated Goku was seen on his knees, burnt nearly beyond recognition but unmistakeably smiling.

"What's so funny Kakarot? I mean you're done. I have just enough power left to destroy this planet and escape before raditz can stop me. So now I'll kill you and be on my merry way," Vegeta snarled, so exhausted his body shook and speech was fractured.

"The funny thing is, you villains never look up," Goku laughed as he saw the horror on Vegeta's face as the Ki orb crashed into Vegeta. He then promptly collapsed, his body shutting down as the flash went off.

For Vegeta there was only heat. And then darkness.

'_Oh holy shit no_!' Raditz thought as he returned to the battle zone, having lost both Ki signatures.

He scanned briefly for Goku, first seeing what he assumed to be the smoking corpse of Vegeta. He finally caught sight of his brother and rushed to him.

"What has he done to you?" Raditz asked rhetorically as he scooped Goku's decimated but pulse giving body up and set off for the Lookout at Kaioken enhanced speed.

"Korin! Get out here and heal him!" Raditz bellowed as he skidded to a halt on the edge of the Lookout.

Coming from the shadows Korin leapt straight to Goku's prone form.

"He lives, barely. Goku my boy you are one tough customer" Korin grunted as he began to applying super holy water to the worst burn areas and transferred some Ki over to Goku.

"He looks no different!" Raditz snapped in concern.

"No until I grow more senzus I am limited in what I can do. I've stabilised him but he needs a hospital now," Korin replied, urging Raditz off.

With that Raditz grabbed Goku and flew off to the nearest hospital.

'Mr Popo, gather those fit enough and transport them to the nearest hospital please,' Korim mentally ordered as he went to attend to Yajirrobe.

'_I have truly lost today. My honour and my dignity are shredded and my body is broken too. Clearly I need to gain immortality if I'm to deal with Frieza. Now to Namek_,' Vegeta thought bitterly, trying to take his mind off the agony he was experiencing.

Shortly after Raditz's departure Vegeta began to wake. Only to be rendered unconscious again by seizure causing pain. He'd broken and injured virtually all his bones, ribs and organs. He could barely breathe let alone move. Using a microchip implanted into his right arm Vegeta managed after three blackouts to bring his pod over to himself.

'_It's taken hours but I'm in_,' Vegeta wearily thought, his mind impaired by pain, worsened by crawling into his pod.

"Set...course for. Planet Frieza 32, medical. Station," Vegeta coughed as the pod door closed and the stasis gas descended, numbing his mind and pain.

Just before he slipped into the warm embrace of sleep one thought burnt through Vegeta's mind.

'_I must gain immortality, I'll slaughter every Ice-Jinn starting with Frieza and then I'll be back for Earth. Kakarot I will kill your entire family_,' Vegeta vengefully planned before sinking into darkness once more.

**I first wish to apologise for all the delays. I've failed all of you and I cannot tell you how sorry I am. I hope people are still interested in this. I would totally understand if nobody is anymore.**

**Now that's over time for the normal business.**

**I am still working with the wonderful Marorin5 on bother her DBZ and Fast and The Furious fics. Similarly I am collaborating with the outstanding Daughter of Vegeta and we have a new fic: Prince of Wall Street. Please go check it out! I am also working on a new fic, not DBZ based but on my other favourite anime; Neon Genesis Evangelion, it will be a sequel of sorts to the main series, separate from the movies.**

**The song I recommend for this chapter is Headstrong by Trapt, it's fitting due to how Goku just won't quit. Furthermore starting from now I will be replying to all comments in the AN here at the end of each chapter. **

**That's end of the Saiyan saga! They did well didn't they? They also managed to utterly enrage Vegeta so we all know he'll be amazing on Namek. While the action is over for now fear not, as there will only be 2 filler chapters and then there will be two story arcs running alongside each other. Namek and my own personal innovation! Will Goku recover? How has the battle affected the survivors? How will Chi-Chi respond to Goku's return? Find out in the next exciting instalment of DBZ: Heroes of Humanity. Please read and review! (or message me with criticism). **


End file.
